Moldova has declared a state of emergency due to the shutdown of Russian gas

Moldova’s Parliament voted on Friday to approve a 60-day state of emergency, citing fears of an imminent threat to public safety before cutting off gas flows from Russia.

Russian gas currently reaches Moldova, a landlocked country on the northeastern edge of Europe’s Balkan region, via its neighbor Ukraine.

However, gas transport agreement The contract between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expires on December 31 and Kiev has repeatedly said it has no intention of extending the contract.

A total of 56 members of parliament in Moldova’s 101-seat parliament vote In support of the state of national emergency, the government said, the country will be able to apply several measures to prevent and mitigate the threat of insufficient energy resources.

Allowing Russian gas to Moldova Transnistrian region It could create a “humanitarian crisis” and “risks to the functioning and stability” of the country’s energy sector, according to a press release from the Moldovan Parliament.

The Prime Minister of Moldova, Dorin Recean, said that the winter should be the last in the history of the country that could be hostage to energy supplies.

Russia, which launched A full invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, even earlier he said It is ready to continue supplying gas to Europe through Ukraine.

Russia launched a massive airstrike against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday morning. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky he said Moscow used 93 missiles and almost 200 drones in the attack.

Analysts at the Dutch bank ING he said Leaving Russian gas supplies through Ukraine to Europe means that the European Union will lose 15 billion cubic meters of gas supplies every year, which is equivalent to around 5% of all imports.

“While efforts have been made to try to get gas flowing through a possible exchange in Azerbaijan, it looks like those flows are going to stop and we think that should come into the market,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING. in a research note published Wednesday.

“This leaves the market with downside risk. If for whatever reason these flows continue, the European market will be better equipped than many expected,” he added.