Breakaway Moldovan region cuts heating, hot water after Russia stops gas flow

Moldova (Reuters): The breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria cut heating and hot water supplies to households on Wednesday after Russia stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.

“There is no heating or hot water,” an employee of local energy company Tirasteploenergo told Reuters by phone from Tiraspol, the main city of the breakaway territory. She said she did not know how long the situation would last.

Transdniestria is a pro-Russian entity that split from the rest of Moldova after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It was receiving Russian gas via Ukraine, but that supply route was halted on Wednesday with the expiry of a transit deal between the two warring countries.

A statement on the energy company’s website said the heating cuts took effect at 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday, but some facilities such as hospitals were exempt.

It urged residents to dress warmly, gather family members together in a single room, hang blankets or thick curtains over windows and balcony doors, and use electric heaters.

“It is forbidden to use gas or electric stoves to heat the apartment – this can lead to tragedy,” the company said.

Transdniestria has existed generally peacefully side by side with Moldova since a brief post-Soviet war in 1992. Some 1,500 Russian troops are stationed there.

The local parliament last month sent an appeal to the Kremlin and the Russian parliament to reach a new agreement with Ukraine to enable gas supplies to continue. Moscow said at the time it would protect its citizens and soldiers in Transdniestria.

Until the expiry of its gas transit deal with Ukraine, Russia was supplying Moldova with about 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, pumped via Transdniestria.

Moldova accuses Russia of exploiting its energy dependence on Moscow in order to destabilize the country, something Moscow denies.