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,

An energy crisis in Transnistria, a pro-Russian territory between Moldova and Ukraine, erupted on Jan. 1 when Moscow stopped supplying natural gas through a pipeline running across Ukraine.

"Russian propaganda tries to create a story in which Moldova becomes a ‘problematic actor,’ although the government has proposed clear solutions to avoid the crisis," Moldovan government spokesperson Daniel Voda said on Jan.

More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 apartment buildings had no winter heat in Moldova's Moscow-backed separatist enclave, authorities said on Monday, as Moldova and Russia traded blame for an escalating energy crisis.

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.”

Moldova has accused Russia of triggering an energy crisis after tens of thousands of homes in its eastern breakaway region of Transnistria were left without heating, gas or electricity following the end of a Ukraine gas transit agreement last week.