CHISINAU -- Moldova’s pro-Moscow breakaway Transdniester region is bracing for additional rolling power cuts and business closures after the supply of Russian natural gas was stopped on January 1 due to the expiration of a contract with Ukraine.
As the region suffered throughout a blistering cold spell, Transdniester authorities said rolling power cuts will last four hours on January 5, running from 8 a.m. to noon local time, including in the regional capital, Tiraspol.
The separatist government warned that power outages could be extended and suggested residents gather firewood to burn to generate heat.
The mainly Russian-speaking region of some 450,000 people faced cuts of one hour on January 3 and three hours on January 4. As of the morning of January 4, at least 157 emergency power outages were recorded, officials said.
SEE ALSO: Russian Gas Shutoff Pumps Up Pressure On Moldova's Pro-Western GovernmentMost industries, except for those producing food products, have been shut down. On January 4, the closures included a steel factory and bakery in the ancient city of Rybnitsa, with a population of about 48,000.
Separatist authorities announced measures to aid the elderly as temperatures were expected to drop to minus-10 Celsius overnight.
The January 3 "introduction of rolling cuts was a test. And it confirmed that an hour-long break to keep the electrical supply system operating was insufficient," Vadim Krasnoselsky, Transdniester’s de facto leader, wrote on Telegram.
"The power generated is not covering sharply rising demand."
He said that “1,500 multistory apartment buildings have no heating and hot water. Almost 72,000 private households have no gas. One hundred and fifty gas boiler houses have been shut down.
Authorities in the federal capital, Chisinau, confirmed that Moldova is providing electricity to Transdniester after the power plant serving the region switched to coal-fired operation.
According to public data, Transdniester's capital, Tiraspol, has reserves of about 70,000 tons of coal, which could cover consumption of the region for 30-50 days.
But people in at least 11 communities near Tiraspol had no supply of natural gas, heating, and hot water on January 1.
The city has set up 30 meeting points where people can gather to warm up and eat hot meals. Meanwhile, about 115,000 households are receiving natural gas supplies only for cooking, according to supplier Tiraspoltransgaz.
Transdniester, the breakaway territory on the eastern bank of the Dniester River, has Russian troops on its soil and has governed its own affairs -- with Moscow’s backing --- since a war that erupted as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.
Analysts and Moldovan officials say Russia is seeking to use the cutoff as a part of a wider effort to weaken the pro-Western government in the small nation situated between Ukraine and European Union member Romania, and where the Kremlin aims to regain influence.
The cutoff was the result of Ukraine’s refusal to extend a transit contract with Russian state gas giant Gazprom, as the West looks to deny Moscow revenue used to fund its war in Ukraine -- a move analysts say is a major blow to the Kremlin.
Much of the gas supply was transported to Europe. Most countries have begun developing alternative sources of gas, although some -- notably Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria -- have said other means will drive up costs prohibitively.
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Moldovans Facing Gas Shortages Are Chopping Wood To Get Through Winter
Moldova until recently got 80 percent of its electricity from Kurchugan, a power plant in Transdniester that had been fueled by Russian gas.
Moldova's state-owned energy trader, Energocom, said it has successfully covered 100 percent of the country's electricity needs but that the halt in Russian gas supplies is causing shortages in the breakaway region.
The Eastern European nation is expected to start importing more electricity from Romania this year, though prices are likely to be higher.
Authorities have urged household consumers, businesses, and public institutions to conserve energy to help to help reduce the need to make purchases at high prices on the EU market.
Even before the January 1 cutoff in gas supplies, Gazprom said on December 28 that it would cease gas deliveries to Moldova at the end of 2024 because of a dispute over debt.