Moldova urged Transnistria to avert a new gas crisis
A look back at 6 February 2025, when Moldova's prime minister pressed the breakaway region over gas, as reports about the Azerbaijan Airlines crash circulated.
What did Moldova's government want from Transnistria on 6 February 2025? Prime Minister Dorin Recean called on the breakaway region to take steps to avoid a new gas crisis, as the country dealt with the aftermath of an energy emergency.
The crisis had begun at the end of the previous year. Transnistria, Moldova's unrecognised breakaway region, stopped receiving natural gas from Russia on 31 December 2024, at 19:50 EET, after Russia's five-year gas transit deal with Ukraine expired. Heating, hot water and gas were completely cut off in Transnistria, while energy tariffs rose sharply and some villages in the rest of Moldova also lost gas supplies.
The human cost in Transnistria was severe. Three people died and several more were injured from carbon monoxide poisoning, and cases of hypothermia were also reported. Recean's appeal on 6 February 2025 was aimed at preventing a repeat of that situation.
A separate report on the Azerbaijan Airlines crash
Two days earlier, on 4 February 2025, an Azerbaijani government source reported that the Azerbaijan Airlines E190 aircraft had been shot down by Russia's Pantsir missile system. The plane operated Flight 8243 from Baku to Grozny.
The crash itself had occurred on 25 December 2024. The Embraer E190 was severely damaged by a Russian surface-to-air missile on approach to Grozny. The pilots tried to divert, but the hydraulic system failed and control was lost, and the aircraft crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan. Of the 67 people on board, 38 died, including both pilots and a flight attendant, while 29 survived with injuries.
