(ANSA-AFP) - CHISINAU, FEB 16 - Moldova's parliament on Thursday voted in a new government after the surprise resignation of its prime minister, as tensions run high over allegations of Russian attempts to destabilise the country on the southern border of Ukraine. Parliament ratified the cabinet of Prime Minister Dorin Recean, named by the pro-European President Maia Sandu to replace Natalia Gavrilita, who quit last Friday citing a lack of party support. Moldova, like Ukraine, has asked for EU membership since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, and analysts have suggested that Gavrilita was not moving fast enough on the institutional and economic reforms needed to join the bloc. The government reset came as the interior ministry said debris of a Russian missile had been found in a field in the north of the country, near its border with Ukraine.

Moldova had summoned the Russian ambassador last Friday over the alleged violation of its airspace, amid claims by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv had intercepted a Moscow plan "to break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova". (ANSA-AFP).