EU blasts Russia for weaponising gas in Moldova
Al Jazeera
Moscow blames Ukraine for halting gas transit and Moldova for financial spat; Chisinau suspects Russia of seeking to influence upcoming elections.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has accused Russia of weaponising gas against Moldova.
Russia is using “gas as a weapon” in waging a “hybrid war” against the small southeast European country, Kaja Kallas said late on Tuesday, pledging the bloc’s support. Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which enjoys strong links with Moscow, has been without gas since the beginning of the year amid a financial spat between Chisinau and Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom.
“Russia continues to use gas as a weapon and once again Moldova is a target of its hybrid warfare,” Kallas wrote overnight on social media platform X. “Thanks to EU support Moldova remains resilient and well-connected to European energy networks.”
For decades, Transnistria, a mainly Russian-speaking breakaway region along the Ukrainian border, had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine.