Moscow-backed region in Moldova hit as gas supplies are cut off

The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Moldova's breakaway Transnistria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers, an official said on Jan 2.

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The mainly Russian-speaking territory of about 450,000 people, which split from Moldova in the 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed, has suffered a painful and immediate hit from the Jan 1 cut-off of Russian gas supplies to central and eastern Europe via Ukraine.

"All industrial enterprises are idle, with the exception of those engaged in food production - that is, directly ensuring food security for Transnistria," Mr Sergei Oboionik, First Deputy Prime Minister of the region, told a local news channel.

"It is too early to judge how the situation will develop... The problem is so extensive that if it is not resolved for a long time, we will already have irreversible changes - that is, enterprises will lose their ability to start up."

Ukraine had allowed Russia to keep pumping gas across its territory despite nearly three years of war and was earning up to US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) a year in transit fees. But Kyiv refused to renew a five-year deal that expired on Jan 1.