The gas transportation company “Moldovagaz” began supplying gas to the Transnistrian region on February 1, replacing Russiaʼs “Gazprom”. For this, the "leader" of unrecognized Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The gas being pumped by “Moldovagaz” was provided by Chisinau and the European Union to prevent pressure drops in the pipelines and a humanitarian crisis after the cessation of Russian gas supplies. Russia stopped gas supplies to Transnistria at the end of December 2024, and the region exhausted all its reserves within a month.
Therefore, the European Union offered Tiraspol gas as humanitarian aid through the government in Chisinau, and the Transnistrian “officials” accepted it. The EU allocated €64 million to Moldova to overcome the energy crisis, of which €20 million was for gas for unrecognized Transnistria.
For now, technical gas is being pumped, which is necessary for the full launch of the fuel and energy system during the supply of gas from Europe. “Tiraspoltransgaz” undertakes to return or pay for this volume of gas by March 1, 2025.
According to Krasnoselsky, they plan to start gas supply for household consumers on Sunday, February 2. On Saturday, January 1, mass power outages were canceled in Transnistria.
Energy crisis in Transnistria
From January 1, 2025, Ukraine stopped the transit of Russian gas, which several EU states and the unrecognized Transnistria continued to receive.
At the same time, Moldova did not agree to Russiaʼs demands to continue supplying gas to Transnistria via an alternative route through the Balkans. Therefore, on December 28, 2024, “Gazprom” officially announced that it would stop supplying gas to Transnistria from January due to "non-fulfillment of payment obligations".
In Transnistria, the supply of heat and hot water to residential buildings has been cut off. In high-rise buildings, gas is available only for cooking. It is supplied from reserves in the gas pipeline system, but only until the pressure in the network drops to a critical level. Industrial enterprises have suspended work, and since January 3, fanned power outages have been introduced.
At first, the Transnistrian Republic refused to help Moldova purchase gas on European markets, waiting for the Russian “Gazprom” to resume supplies.
On January 15, Krasnoselsky reported that Russia would resume gas supplies to unrecognized Transnistria — doing so in the form of humanitarian and technical assistance. And then he said that Russia would allocate a loan for this.
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