More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 buildings had no heating in Moldova’s separatist region Transdniestria, authorities told Reuters.
The development comes after Ukraine had refused to transit Russian gas through its pipelines to Europe.
Authorities in Moldova’s Transdniestria region cut off gas supplies to several state institutions on December 29.
A deal allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine expired on December 31.
Ukraine had refused to renew the deal as it is currently in a war against Russia that began in early 2022.
Transdnietria, a majorly Russian-speaking separatist region in Moldova, had received gas from Moscow for many years.
The region used to depend on gas from Russia to generate electricity.
Russian gas was also used to provide 80% of Moldova’s power.
Transdnietria: settlements without power
According to the Reuters report, a total of 122 settlements in Transdniestria had been cut off from receiving gas.
Only a handful of apartments have been receiving gas in small amounts for cooking.
Authorities in the region have also urged schools to not reopen after the winter holidays.
Around 131 schools and 147 kindergartens were left without heat during this winter.
“There is not a single person in Transdniestria who is guilty of this situation – it’s all an external factor,” the president in the region’s administration, Vadim Krasnoselsky, was quoted in the report.
Moldova is a former Soviet state, situated between Russia and Romania.
Moldova’s unpaid debt
Supply was cut off a day after Russia’s Gazprom said it would suspend exports to Moldova from January 1 due to unpaid debt.
Moldova had disputed allegations of arrears for gas imports from Russia in the past. It also accused Moscow of destabilizing the country.
Moldova imports around 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Russia, which was piped via Ukraine to pro-Russian separatist Transdniestria.
Gazprom had earlier claimed that Moldova had accumulated arrears of $709 million in unpaid debt.
A thermal plant in Transdniestria produced cheap power with Russian imports and sold it to government-run parts of Moldova.
Romania comes to the aid
Since the Russian gas was cut off at the end of last month, Moldova has met domestic power needs through imports from neighboring Romania, according to Reuters.
According to Krasnoselsky, reports of such aid were lies and Moldova’s aim was the “strangulation” of Transdnietria.
He was quoted by Reuters in the report:
There have been no offers of assistance from Moldova or other states.
Krasnoselsky has urged the families in the region to use firewood to meet their power needs.
The government of Moldova had accused Russian giant Gazprom of the energy crisis. It said that Gazprom had refused to supply gas to Moldova via an alternative route.
There has also been criticism from Russia and Slovakia towards Ukraine’s decision to not renew the gas transit deal between Moscow and Kyiv once it ends on December 31, 2024.
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