2025 Moldovan energy crisis

Moldova's unrecognized breakaway region of Transnistria stopped receiving natural gas supplies from Russia on 31 December 2024, at 19:50 EET (17:50 UTC), as a result of the expiration of Russia's five-year gas transit deal with Ukraine. This kickstarted a nationwide energy crisis; heating, hot water and gas (except for cooking in cities) were completely cut off in Transnistria, while energy tariffs increased sharply and some villages were also cut off from gas in the rest of Moldova. In Transnistria, three people died and several more were injured due to carbon monoxide poisoning, with cases of hypothermia also being reported.

Historically, Transnistria had covered most of Moldova's electricity needs through the Cuciurgan power station, which functioned with Russian gas supplied to Transnistria for free. However, gas supplies stopped reaching Transnistria after Ukraine refused to renew a gas transit deal with Russia in order to deprive it of funding for its then ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Russia had the option of continuing the supply through the TurkStream and Trans-Balkan pipelines, but it refused to do so; an energy crisis could benefit Russia in helping bring down the then ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) at the upcoming Moldovan parliamentary election later that year, with the Moldovan authorities describing this as the underlying reason for the crisis.

Thus, Moldova began to buy more expensive electricity from Romania, while Transnistria remained without gas until February. During the energy crisis, there was concern about the possibility of a humanitarian crisis in Transnistria, where some 350,000 people lived at the time, and as Transnistria's main sources of revenue came from the use of free Russian gas, including the sale of produced electricity to Moldova, analysts and commentators pointed out that the crisis could lead to the collapse of the breakaway state and its reintegration back into Moldova.