By Galina Korol | 2025-01-14

KYIV -- Cold radiators, dark windows and the shutdown of nearly every industrial enterprise are the reality now in Transnistria.

Transnistria said January 10 it was "counting" on Russia to help it overcome an unprecedented energy crisis sparked by Moscow halting gas supplies January 1.

But conditions are deteriorating daily in the breakaway region of Moldova, observers say.

The rest of Moldova has been spared for now, able to secure power imports from neighboring Romania.

Thousands without heat, electricity

Immediately after Gazprom stopped providing natural gas to the region, 122 towns and cities in the self-proclaimed republic found themselves without gas, said the region's "prime minister," Aleksandr Rosenberg, at a situation room meeting on January 6, according to Transnistria News.

The lack of heat quickly segued into a lack of electricity. The Moldovan State District Power Plant in Transnistria, which previously ran on free Russian gas, has begun burning coal reserves that will likely last only until the end of January.

Now the plant risks not only being unable to provide electricity to the pro-Russian region but also no longer being able to sell electricity to Chișinău that can reach the rest of the country.

Before the loss of Russian gas, the plant generated about 70% of Moldova's electricity.

The imbalance in energy consumption and production has caused rolling blackouts in Transnistria.

"Tensions are growing there. At first the lights were turned off for 2-3 hours, then for 4, now for 8 hours," Yevgeniy Cheban, an independent Moldovan journalist from Chișinău, told Kontur.

The power grid is experiencing more and more failures, and the situation is becoming more difficult.

"Over the past 24 hours, 54 firefighting teams responded to 160 fires. In addition to fuses, wires in power lines in cities have started to burn," Transnistria News reported January 7.

'It's very hard. It's very cold here'

The crisis has caused an almost total shutdown in industry, with most factories closing and those still open operating at night to avoid overloading the power grid.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost because of the closures, while the economy is at risk of "collapse," the region's parliament said in a statement January 10.

"There are major power outages because people turn on [electric] fireplaces and heaters, and this creates a heavy load," said Lyudmila Kutsenko, a former resident of Tiraspol.

She now lives in Sweden with her family but regularly travels to her homeland to visit relatives and friends.

Her husband is visiting his mother in Tiraspol, so he has told her what is happening in Transnistria.

"I've already sent a lot of money there to my friends so that they could buy warm blankets, so that they could buy warm pajamas," Kutsenko told Kontur. "Because now I don't know how many employers are still open. And what they [Kutsenko's friends] will be paid is unknown."

"Some [residents] are becoming depressed. Others are starting to die because they turn on the leftover gas in their pipes, and they suffocate from this gas, carbon monoxide. Two have already been buried," she said.

For now, all schools in the region are closed until January 20. Kindergartens are operating only on a "on-call" basis and only for families where both parents work or households with a single parent or many children.

In the state-run children's homes, staff complain about the terrible cold. Trying to warm food for their wards, they are literally wrapping it in their coats.

"Never in my life have we worked in such conditions. It's very hard. It's very cold here," said one cook at a children's home, speaking in a video published January 6 on First Transnistrian TV's Telegram channel.

The lack of electricity is also affecting the residential water supply.

"The decrease in pressure in the network, which is possible during rolling blackouts, may leave the upper floors of multi-story apartment buildings n Bendery and Tiraspol without water," RBC-Ukraine reported January 5. "Moreover, yesterday there was no water in one of the districts of Tiraspol."

Making the public suffer

The culprit for this desperate situation is plain to see, analysts told Kontur.

The Kremlin has traditionally used energy to influence regions, and Transnistria is no exception.

"Transnistria has found itself in a very difficult situation that will get worse," said Vitaly Andrievsky, a Chișinău-based political scientist and director of the Institute for Effective Policies.

"Russia is doing nothing in this situation. Apparently, this is a game that involves scenarios where people must be made to suffer," Andrievsky told Kontur.

Gazprom justified cutting off gas supplies to this Russian-speaking region of Moldova by citing the national utility Moldovagaz's alleged violation of contractual obligations and its failure to repay the so-called "historic debt" of $709 million.

For its part, Chișinău denies the existence of this debt, pointing to an international audit.

"Those who are a little better informed, those who are critical of the Transnistrian government, understand what is going on," said Cheban. "And that, in reality, this is a decision made by Russia and Gazprom."

After the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine stopped on January 1, the Kremlin could have sent gas to Transnistria via an alternative route, say observers.

"It seems that up until the last day they [Transnistrian officials] expected that Russia would solve their problem -- if not through Ukraine, then through the Balkan gas pipeline, but that gas would be provided," said Andrievsky. "Or maybe that Russia would help with money to buy gas."

So far, however, this hope has not borne fruit.

'Responsibility lies with Moscow'

Alternatively, Russia has already tried to deflect blame and sell itself as a "savior."

"We can state with confidence that the situation on the Left Bank was artificially created by the collective West and Ukraine," the Russian embassy in Chișinău said in a statement posted on Facebook January 6.

This claim did not go unnoticed by Chișinău.

"This is a cynical attempt to manipulate public opinion and shift the blame onto Chișinău or Kyiv, whereas the real responsibility lies solely with Moscow," the Moldovan Foreign Ministry replied January 6 on Telegram.

Internationally recognized as part of Moldova, Transnistria declared independence at the end of the Soviet Union and has been reliant on Moscow's financial support ever since. Russia has about 1,500 troops stationed there.