Breakaway Transnistria Says Needs Russian Help To Overcome Energy Crisis

“Over these past days we have not heard any concrete offers of help from either the European Union, United States or Moldova,” Transnistria’s foreign minister Vitaly Ignatiev said in a parliamentary meeting quoted by local media.

“Everyone is counting on there being Russian help with gas supplies, to avoid monstrous humanitarian consequences,” he added.

With temperatures hitting freezing point, people have been forced to burn wood or plug in electric heaters for warmth, prompting daily blackouts as Transnistria’s Soviet-era energy grid struggles with the demand.

Russian energy provider Gazprom halted gas to Moldova on January 1 over what it said were longstanding debts with the government in Chisinau, the same day a major gas transit agreement between Moscow and Kyiv to pipe gas across Ukraine ended.

Moscow says Moldova and Ukraine are at fault, saying Chisinau has longstanding debts with Gazprom and criticising Kyiv’s decision to “cynically” end gas transit through its territory.

But the EU and Moldova blame Moscow for the crisis. Chisinau says Gazprom is blowing the debt issue out of proportion and that it can still pump gas to Transnistria through a route that runs through the Balkans.

The crisis has caused an almost total shutdown in industry in the breakaway state, with most factories closing and those still open operating at night to avoid overloading the power grid.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost due to the closures, while the economy is at risk of “collapse”, the government said in a statement Friday.

Internationally recognised as part of Moldova, Transnistria declared independence at the end of the Soviet Union and has been reliant on Moscow’s financial support ever since. Russia has around 1,500 troops stationed there.

The rest of Moldova has been spared for now, able to secure power imports from neighbouring Romania.

bur/ach