Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter covering science and geopolitics.
Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria has been thrust into a profound energy crisis following the termination of a five-year gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Alongside Slovakia and Austria, Moldova was thought to be one of the country’s most at risk from the cessation of Russian gas supplies.
Transnistria, a separatist pro-Russian enclave in Moldova, broke away in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed, although it is still internationally recognized as part of Moldova.
Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria has been thrust into a profound energy crisis following the termination of a five-year gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the mainly Russian-speaking territory of Transnistria are left facing the remaining winter months without heating or power after Ukraine halted the flow of Russian gas to several European countries on New Year’s Day.
The widely expected stoppage, which was confirmed by Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday, marked an end to Moscow’s decades-long dominance over Europe’s energy markets.
Alongside Slovakia and Austria, Moldova was thought to be one of the countries most at risk from the cessation of Russian gas supplies.
Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, the landlocked Eastern European country declared a 60-day state of emergency last month over energy security fears.
Transnistria, a separatist pro-Russian enclave in Moldova, broke away in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed, although it is still internationally recognized as part of Moldova.
The region has now been forced to close almost all industrial companies, with the exception of food producers, following Wednesday’s cutoff of Russian gas supplies.
“All industrial enterprises are idle, with the exception of those engaged in food production - that is, directly ensuring food security for Transdniestria,” Sergei Obolonik, first deputy prime minister of the region, told a local news channel on Thursday, according to Reuters.
“It is too early to judge how the situation will develop. ... The problem is so extensive that if it is not resolved for a long time, we will already have irreversible changes - that is, enterprises will lose their ability to start up.”
‘A serious test’
Until Wednesday, Russian gas had reached Moldova via its neighbor of Ukraine. However, neither Moscow nor Kyiv had been willing to strike a new gas transit deal amid the ongoing war.
Russia, which has transported gas to Europe via Ukrainian pipelines since 1991, has claimed European Union countries will suffer the most from the supply shift. Moscow can still send gas via the TurkStream pipeline, which links Russia with Hungary, Serbia and Turkey.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it has been working with EU member states most impacted by the end of the gas transit agreement to ensure the entire 27-nation bloc was prepared for such a scenario.
Moldova, which is not an EU member state but narrowly voted in favor of closer EU ties in a referendum last year, is now facing a significant gas shortage.
In Transnistria, the breakaway region’s leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky, said via Telegram on Thursday that the situation “is difficult, but social collapse is unacceptable.”
Krasnoselsky said more than 2,600 facilities in the region were currently without heat and hot water, of which over 1,500 were apartment buildings.
Krasnoselsky said Wednesday that Transnistria’s main power plant had started using coal after the stoppage of Russian gas supplies and estimated that the enclave had enough gas reserves to last for 10 days of limited usage in its northern parts and twice as long in the south.
“In Transnistria, the year began with a serious test - an energy crisis provoked by an unfavorable combination of external factors,” Krasnoselsky said, according to a translation.
Moldova Elections
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean announced on Friday that the country is facing a security crisis due to the halt of Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine, accusing Russia of using gas as a tool for coercion.
In an official statement, Recean highlighted the looming humanitarian crisis affecting the 350,000 residents of the Transnistrian region.
"By endangering the future of a region it has supported for three decades to destabilize Moldova, Russia is exposing the fate awaiting all its allies - betrayal and isolation," Recean stated.
He added, "We view this as a security threat designed to facilitate the return of pro-Russian forces to power in Moldova and to use our territory as a weapon against Ukraine, with which we share a 1,200 km border."
A spokesperson from the Russian Embassy in London was unavailable for comment.
Recean also noted that Moldova has successfully secured its electricity supply for the early days of 2025, with half of the country's energy needs met through domestic production and the other half through imports.
The country’s parliament said late last year that the stoppage of Russian gas to its Transnistrian region could generate “a humanitarian crisis” as well as “risks to the functioning and stability” of the Moldova’s energy sector.
Moldova is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections over the coming months. The vote is poised to shape the country’s future relationship with the EU.
In early November last year, European leaders congratulated pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu on winning a runoff vote in the country’s presidential election. The ballot was seen as a further step on the former Soviet republic’s road to integration with the bloc.
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