- Transnistria is facing heating cuts after a halt in piped Russian natural gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine.
- The gas halt follows Ukraine’s decision to not renew a gas transit contract with Russia.
- EU countries, like Slovakia, still rely on Russian gas, highlighting geopolitical risks.
A European region is grappling with freezing temperatures in winter after Russian natural gas stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine.
On Monday, local energy company Tirasteploenergo warned residents in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, that heating and hot water services would be cut from 7 a.m. on Wednesday — the first day of 2025.
Hospitals and critical infrastructure still received heating, but the situation is precarious for Transnistria’s population, which numbered about 475,000 at its last census in 2015.
Tirasteploenergo advised residents to take basic measures to keep warm, as temperatures could dip to 23 degrees Fahrenheit in the capital city of Tiraspol in the coming days.
“To keep the room warm, seal the cracks in the windows and balcony doors, hang blankets or thick curtains over them. Place all family members in one room, temporarily closing the rest of the rooms,” the company told customers.
Tirasteploenergo also advised consumers to use electric heaters but to limit energy use.
“Dress warmly and take preventive medications for acute respiratory infections and flu,” it added.
A company employee told Reuters on Wednesday that she did not know how long the situation would persist.
Tirasteploenergo did not respond immediately to a Business Insider request for comment outside regular business hours.
The halt in services came following the termination of a five-year Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine after Kyiv refused to renew the deal over the war in Ukraine. The pipeline’s shutdown marked the end of an era for Russia’s oldest gas route to Europe.
The cessation of gas supplies would hit Transnistria particularly hard since the region has been getting gas free of charge from Russian state-owned giant Gazprom.
Transnistria declared a 30-day economic emergency last month ahead of the impending energy crisis.
Moldova has also declared a 60-day state of emergency as the landlocked country still gets much of its gas from Transnistria.
‘A historic event’
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko hailed the halt of Russian gas to Europe as a “historic event.”
“Russia is losing its markets and will suffer financial losses,” Galushchenko said in a Wednesday statement.
The developments illustrate the region’s geopolitical and economic entanglements with Russia, an energy giant.
Many European Union countries have weaned themselves off Russian piped gas, which used to account for nearly 40% of the bloc’s supply, but some — like Slovakia and the Czech Republic — are still reliant on Russian gas.
The EU as a whole also still imports seaborne Russian liquefied natural gas.
The Czech Republic — a landlocked country that cut Russian piped gas imports in the summer of 2023 — imported more of the fuel in 2024 because it was cheaper than LNG, Bloomberg reported in November.
Meanwhile, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico appealed to the EU to find a way to keep Russian gas flowing via Ukraine. Slovakia made as much as 500 million euros, or $518 million, a year in Russian gas transit fees and would pay about 90 million euros more a year for alternative gas sources.
“Halting gas transit via Ukraine will have a drastic impact on us all in the EU — but not on the Russian Federation,” Fico said in his New Year’s address.
