The head of Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria has urged residents to burn firewood for heating and warned that blackouts cannot be avoided, after Moscow stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.
Vadim Krasnoselskyi, the president of the Russian-backed separatist slither on Moldova’s eastern flank, said in a message on Telegram on Friday that “1,500 multi-story apartment buildings have no heating and hot water. Almost 72,000 private households have no gas. One hundred and fifty gas boiler houses have been shut down.”
“Fortunately, our region is rich in wood. There are still reserves,” he added, encouraging residents in rural areas with active stoves to find and burn wood where possible.
The region has been plunged into an energy crisis since New Year’s Day, when Ukraine made good on its promise to halt the transport of Russian gas to Europe through its territory after a key deal with Moscow expired. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the move as “one of Moscow’s greatest defeats.”
Transnistria – a pro-Russian breakaway territory on the Ukrainian border – split from the rest of Moldova after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine until the supply was cut off.
“We cannot avoid rolling blackouts. This is required to protect the system. I am sure that everyone is accepting this stage with understanding,” Krasnoselskyi wrote on Telegram on Friday. “The government has developed a schedule, based on which it will be possible to organize everyday life and activity with the least inconvenience.”
Temperatures in the Transnistrian capital Tiraspol were forecast to hover slightly above freezing over the weekend, as a cold snap passes through much of Europe, though the European winter has otherwise been relatively mild so far.
The breakaway region’s parliament urged the Kremlin to reach a new deal with Ukraine over gas last month. Before the expiry of the transit deal with Ukraine, Russia had been supplying Moldova with around 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which was pumped through Transnistria, according to Reuters.
Ukraine now faces a loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales, the news agency reported.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has meanwhile suggested he could cut electricity supplies to Ukraine and reduce aid to Ukrainian refugees in retaliation for the expiry of the gas transit deal, which he described as “sabotage” by Zelensky.
Europe has in general significantly reduced its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but parts of the former Eastern Bloc still import gas in large quantities.