Moldova and the European Union have worked out an emergency plan to help the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria mired in an energy crisis after the halt of Russian gas flows.

“Our objective is to immediately end the humanitarian crisis” in Transnistria and “to provide additional assistance to all citizens of Moldova, to ensure the development and the resilience of the nation’s energy sector in the long term,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said at the news conference in Chisinau.