Transistria Faces Power Outages Due To Russia-Ukraine Conflict

President of Transistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky (doc. press service of President of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic).

JAKARTA - The power outage will continue on Saturday, January 4, 2025, in the breakaway Moldova area, the Transistria.

According to local authorities, the area has lost Russian gas supply after Ukraine's decision not to extend its Russian gas transit contract.

The flow of Russian gas through Ukraine to central and eastern Europe was halted on New Year's Day after the end of the transit agreement between warring countries. Kyiv declined to carry out further business with Moscow.

The Transistria official said the first rotating power outage had taken effect on Friday evening, January 3, 2025.

The predominantly Russian-speaking region, which is located along the Moldova-Ukraine border and broke away from Moldova in the 1990s, has received Russian gas through Ukraine and used it to generate electricity.

The official Telegram news channel from the government of Transistria said the electricity supply would be cut off for three hours between 2 pm and 5 pm in many districts.

President of Transistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, previously said power outages were inevitable.

He said the area had gas reserves to meet its limited needs for 10 days in the north and twice as long in the south.

He did not say whether there were plans to look for supplies after that.

On Saturday, Krasnoselsky said on Telegram that the power outage could be extended to four hours on Sunday, January 5, 2025.

Russia denies using gas as a weapon to force Moldova and blames Kyiv for refusing to renew the gas transit deal.

Moldova acquired about 60 percent of its gas needs from Romania and produced the rest.

However, the power outage of Transistria is a problem for Moldova, especially because the enclave is home to a power plant that provides most electricity for the Moldova region, which is controlled by the government at fixed and low prices.

The Prime Minister of Moldova, Dorin Recean, said on Friday, January 3, 2025, that his country is facing a security crisis after the implementation of a rotating blackout in the Transistria.

However, he also said that the Chisinau Government had prepared alternative arrangements, with a mix of domestic production and imports of electricity from Romania.

Moldova said Russia's big gas company Gazprom opened a new tab that could supply gas through Ukraine, but deliberately chose not to.

In fact, before stopping supplies through Ukraine, Gazprom had said on December 28, 2024 that it would suspend exports to Moldova on January 1, 2025 because of what Russia said was Moldova's unpaid debt of USD 709 million.

Moldova denied it and said the figure was 8.6 million US dollars.