Ukraine's suspension of Russian gas supplies is pushing Transnistria into a crisis

Separatist region of Moldova Transnistria fell into a deep energy crisis in the aftermath termination of the five-year gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the mainly Russian-speaking territory of Transnistria face remaining winter months without heat and electricity after Ukraine suspended the flow of Russian gas to several European countries on New Year's Day.

The widely expected downtime that it was confirmed by the state energy giant Gazprom, ended Moscow's decades-long domination of European energy markets.

Along Slovakia and Austria, Moldova was thought be one of the countries most at risk of cessation of Russian gas supplies.

A landlocked country in the north-eastern corner of the European Balkan region decided a 60-day state of emergency was declared last month over energy security concerns.

Transnistria, a separatist pro-Russian enclave in Moldova, broke away in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, although it is still internationally recognized as part of Moldova.

The region was forced to close almost all industrial enterprises, except food producers, after Wednesday's cut off of Russian gas supplies.

“All industrial enterprises are passive, except for those involved in food production, i.e. directly ensuring the food security of Transnistria,” Sergei Obolonik, the region's first deputy prime minister, told a local news channel on Thursday, according to Reuters.

“It is too early to assess how the situation will develop. … The problem is so extensive that if it is not solved for a long time, we will have irreversible changes – that is, enterprises will lose the ability to start.”

Until Wednesday, Russian gas reached Moldova through neighboring Ukraine. However, neither Moscow nor Kiev was willing to conclude a new gas transit agreement ongoing war.

Russia, which has been transporting gas to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines since 1991, claims that the European Union countries will suffer the most from the change in supplies. Moscow may continue to send gas through the TurkStream pipeline, which connects Russia with Hungary, Serbia and Turkey.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, he said is working with the EU Member States most affected by the end of the gas transit agreement to ensure that the entire 27-nation bloc is prepared for such a scenario.

Moldova, which is not an EU member state, but narrowly voted last year it voted for closer ties with the EU in a referendum, but it is currently struggling with a significant gas shortage.

In Transnistria, the leader of the separatist region, Vadim Krasnoselsky he said on Thursday via Telegram that the situation “is difficult, but social collapse is unacceptable.”

Krasnoselsky said that more than 2,600 properties in the region currently have no heat or hot water, of which more than 1,500 are residential buildings.

On Wednesday, he said Transnistria's main power plant had started using coal after Russian gas supplies were suspended, and estimated the enclave had enough gas reserves to last 10 days of limited use in the northern part and twice as long in the south.

“In Transnistria, the year began with a serious test – an energy crisis caused by an unfavorable combination of external factors,” Krasnoselski said, according to a translation.

Prime Minister of Moldova Dorin Recean he said On Friday, he said the country was facing a security crisis after stopping the flow of Russian gas through Ukraine and accused the Kremlin of “gas blackmail.”

In a statement on the government's website, Recean warned of an impending humanitarian crisis for the 350,000 people in the Transnistrian region.

“By jeopardizing the future of a protectorate it has supported for three decades to destabilize Moldova, Russia is revealing the inevitable outcome for all its allies – betrayal and isolation,” Recean said.

“We treat this as a security crisis aimed at enabling the return of pro-Russian forces to power in Moldova and arming our territory against Ukraine, with which we share a 1,200 km border,” he added.

The Prime Minister of Moldova said that the country managed to secure electricity supplies in the first days of 2025, with half of the country's energy consumption coming from domestic sources and the other half from imports.

When CNBC contacted a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London, he was unavailable for comment.

The country's parliament he said late last year that the suspension of Russian gas supplies to the Transnistria region could cause a “humanitarian crisis” as well as a “threat to the functioning and stability” of the Moldovan energy sector.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Moldova, located between Russia and Ukraine, in the coming months. The vote could shape the country's future relationship with the EU.

At the beginning of November last year, European leaders I congratulated pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu after winning the second round of the country's presidential elections. The vote was seen as another step on the former Soviet republic's path to integration with the bloc.

— CNBC's Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.