Ukraine’s halt of Russian gas throws Transnistria into crisis

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.”

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…