Kallas made the statement at a joint press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu during a visit to Chișinău on the eve of Europe Day—established to celebrate the signing of the Schuman declaration, which led to the emergence of the European Union. Kallas said Moldova had made significant progress on reforms and stressed that the Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria would not block the country’s EU future. President Sandu has set a goal of signing an EU accession treaty by 2028, a target strengthened by the pro-European PAS party’s parliamentary victory in September 2025 after a campaign overshadowed by allegations of Russian interference. Moldova, a small country between Ukraine and Romania, has sought to move out of Moscow’s orbit since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The timing of Kallas’s visit is both symbolic and sensitive: May 9 is a date reflecting Moldova’s divisive political history, as it is both Europe Day and Victory Day. While Europe Day is associated by pro-Western Moldovans with democracy and the country’s EU aspirations, Victory Day—a major national holiday in Russia commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II—is emblematic of Moldova’s Soviet past and the pro-Moscow sympathies of some of its citizens.