To hear General Alexander Lebed tell it, the 14th Army, his command in Moldova, is the only thing standing between war and peace in an area from Russia to Romania.


In an interview with The Moscow Times, Lebed said that the upheavals faced by the 14th Army -- demotion to a lesser status and his own dismissal -- will damage the force's capacity to carry out its mission.


To the outspoken Lebed, popular in the military for his no-holds-barred criticism of the decline of the Soviet Army and Russia's policies towards its "near abroad," his force's mission is crucial.


"If the army were withdrawn, there would be a war spreading to Ukraine, Russia, Moldova and parts of Romania," Lebed said by telephone from his Moscow residence, where he is vacationing.


Lebed said he would cut his vacation short and return to the 14th Army in Moldova's breakaway Transdnestr region this week, three weeks before his vacation officially expires on Sept. 1.


Sept. 1 is also the Defense Ministry deadline for the downgrading of the 14th Army to a division, Lebed said. He said the move was "most probably" aimed at ousting him personally because Russia's top brass and government were afraid of his "unpredictability."


Lebed said the ministry was retaliating against a recent interview in which he criticized President Boris Yeltsin and said Russia needed a leader like former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.


The remarks appeared in print shortly before Lebed left the army's headquarters in the Transdnestrian capital Tiraspol on July 19 for his vacation.


Press spokesmen for the Defense Ministry confirmed that the army is scheduled for demotion, and that Lebed would automatically lose control of the unit. But they said no deadline was set for the reorganization and named understaffing, rather than Lebed, as the cause.


However, the proposed changes come at a time the general's rash political statements have earned him the support of about 70 percent of the Russian Army's servicemen, according to a survey published in Izvestia last month.


Underlining the 14th Army's support for Lebed, a conference of officers voted for a resolution Monday protesting the plans to cut the administration and demanding that Lebed remain as the commander, Colonel Mikhail Bergman, the army's military police chief, said in a telephone interview from Tiraspol. Bergman added that threats to the army's officers intensified in the absence of Lebed and he had to increase security at the army's base because of possible provocations.


Lebed said he did not yet know of the officers' protest, but he said he was "the only person capable of holding back provocations and attacks" by the self-styled Transdnestr republic's government.He added that if he is removed from his command, he will resign from the army. Lebed added he has no plans to enter politics.