The head of Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria has urged residents to burn firewood for heating and warned that blackouts cannot be avoided, after Moscow stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.

By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest With no natural gas and insufficient electricity produced from its limited coal reserves, the pro-Russian separatist Transnistria region in Moldova has chosen to live under a self-imposed energy blockade after Ukraine discontinued the transfer of Russian gas to Europe (including Moldova) on January 1,

Moldova 'strongly condemns provocative rhetoric and dangerous insinuations' about alleged ‘forceful resolution' of Transnistrian issue, says Foreign Ministry

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, on Tuesday accused Russia of using gas as a “weapon” in its “hybrid warfare” against Moldova.

Moscow breakaway region of Transnistria halted almost all industrial activity except for food production, following the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine, Interfax reported.

A renegade part of Moldova once boasted it would become a Russian-speaking Switzerland. Now without gas, its leader assured residents, “We will not allow a societal collapse.”