Trans-Dniester doesn't usually get much attention. But European leaders are watching it closely because it hosts about 1,500 Russian troops and shares a 250-mile border with Ukraine.
Last month, Ukrainian forces pushed the Russians out of the village of Mala Rohan. NPR goes inside the warehouse Russia had used as temporary barracks.
Spooked by reports that traffickers are waiting at the Ukraine-Poland border, a Polish woman started an all-women car service to drive Ukrainian refugee women and children to homes or shelters.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Eka Koliubaieva and her two daughters fled to the U.S., where a Virginia couple took them in after learning about the family's plight from a Facebook post.
One of Europe's poorest countries, Moldova has a separatist region that hosts 1,500 Russian troops. Since the Ukraine war, Moldova's applied to join the EU, even as it keeps a policy of neutrality.
