Short of Heat and Power, the Breakaway Region of Transnistria Struggles Without Russian Gas

After struggling without heat for six days, a breakaway region in the Eastern European country of Moldova is now short of electricity, too, with the authorities ordering eight hours of power cuts a day to prevent the overloaded electricity system from collapsing.

The energy crisis in Transnistria, a sliver of pro-Russian territory between Moldova and Ukraine, began on Jan. 1 when Moscow stopped supplying natural gas through a pipeline running across Ukraine. It intensified this week as residents tried to keep warm using electric heaters, overloading and often blowing out an antiquated Soviet-era electricity grid. The power outages have in turn interrupted water supplies.

The halt in Russian gas deliveries, prompted by Ukraine’s refusal to renew an expiring gas transit deal, has raised questions about the survival of Transnistria, which declared itself an independent microstate in 1990 and has survived since then thanks to economic and military support from Moscow.

Inhabited largely by Russian speakers, Transnistria on Tuesday celebrated Orthodox Christmas, usually a festive occasion, but one that was made painful this year by the absence of gas for cooking and heat. In a grim Christmas message, the region’s president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, urged people not to give up, telling them “it is very important to hope for the best and believe that everything can be overcome.”

Moldova’s prime minister, Dorin Recean, said Monday that his government had offered to help Transnistria, located mostly on the left or eastern bank of the Dniester River, but had been rebuffed.

Transnistria’s leader, Mr. Krasnoselsky, said in remarks broadcast by local media that he had received no offers of help, accusing Moldova of trying to “strangle” his breakaway territory and force it to give up its claims to statehood, a status that is not recognized by any country.

Indirectly addressing the question of whether Russia, by cutting off gas, has effectively given up on Transnistria, Mr. Krasnoselsky said that “talk of Russia abandoning Transnistria” was being spread by “unfriendly” outsiders to create panic.

Prime Minister Recean, speaking to journalists at an online news conference, said “Moldova’s objective is to reintegrate the country” but said this would be done peacefully and could only happen once Russia withdraws troops “illegally stationed there.”

The escalating energy crisis, however, has raised the possibility that people could start fleeing the enclave, leaving it an empty husk — unless Russia steps in using alternative gas conduits that skirt Ukraine.

“If they cannot survive any more on the left bank without electricity, heating and water, then we will be hosting them here on the right bank,” Mr. Recean said.

Moscow has so far balked at getting gas to Transnistria by using a pipeline under the Black Sea to Turkey, which connects to a gas route through the Balkans to Moldova and the separatist enclave. Doing that would involve extra transit fees for the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which, even before Ukraine shut down the cheaper route, was already losing large amounts of money because it delivered gas largely for free to Transnistria.

Mr. Kranoselsky pleaded with residents on Tuesday to unplug electrical heaters “so that an already difficult situation does not get worse,” noting that there had been 160 emergency power outages the previous day. Local media outlets posted photographs of burned out fuse boxes and reported multiple electrical fires. Military field kitchens have appeared on the streets of Tiraspol, the region’s capital, to feed residents hot food.

Russia sent troops to Transnistria as peacekeepers during a brief war in 1992 between Russian-speaking separatists and Romanian-speaking fighters from Moldova but they are still there more than three decades later.

Unable to resupply its forces since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Russia has increasingly relied on local supplies and manpower to maintain its military force in Transnistria of around 1,500 soldiers.