By Editorial Dept – Jan 03, 2025, 8:30 AM CST
The end of 2024 isn’t just the end of a year. It’s also the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine, which brings to an end a decades-long chapter of Moscow’s dominance over European energy markets.
While the EU has, to a large degree, insulated itself from immediate fallout—thanks to alternative supply deals in Slovakia and Austria—the move still carries weighty geopolitical consequences. Hungary remains reliant on Russian gas via TurkStream, but the real crisis has hit Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, where heating shortages have left residents scrambling for electric heaters and extra blankets.
For Ukraine, this is a strategic win.
President Zelenskiy hailed it as one of Moscow’s “biggest defeats” and called for greater U.S. gas exports to Europe to speed up the region’s independence from Russian energy. Moldova now faces a critical test of European solidarity as it struggles to manage its energy shortfall.
Russia’s grip on Europe’s energy supply has been steadily weakening since 2022, but the EU isn’t out of the woods yet. EU energy costs have achieved some stability. But energy costs are inextricably linked to the bloc’s economic competitiveness. To protect itself, Europe will need to double down on infrastructure upgrades, expand LNG capacity, and support vulnerable neighbors like Moldova in weathering the energy transition. What Europe fears more than Moscow is higher and higher natural gas prices.
Moldova is the easiest…
The end of 2024 isn’t just the end of a year. It’s also the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine, which brings to an end a decades-long chapter of Moscow’s dominance over European energy markets.
While the EU has, to a large degree, insulated itself from immediate fallout—thanks to alternative supply deals in Slovakia and Austria—the move still carries weighty geopolitical consequences. Hungary remains reliant on Russian gas via TurkStream, but the real crisis has hit Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, where heating shortages have left residents scrambling for electric heaters and extra blankets.
For Ukraine, this is a strategic win.
President Zelenskiy hailed it as one of Moscow’s “biggest defeats” and called for greater U.S. gas exports to Europe to speed up the region’s independence from Russian energy. Moldova now faces a critical test of European solidarity as it struggles to manage its energy shortfall.
Russia’s grip on Europe’s energy supply has been steadily weakening since 2022, but the EU isn’t out of the woods yet. EU energy costs have achieved some stability. But energy costs are inextricably linked to the bloc’s economic competitiveness. To protect itself, Europe will need to double down on infrastructure upgrades, expand LNG capacity, and support vulnerable neighbors like Moldova in weathering the energy transition. What Europe fears more than Moscow is higher and higher natural gas prices.
Moldova is the easiest target here, and Putin will seek to use this divided nation with its own breakaway region to raise tensions. Moscow’s shrugging it off, and Ukraine is planning to increase its domestic gas transportation prices. Moldova is the flashpoint for a Kremlin tactic to create a disaster scenario and make it look like Ukraine’s halting of Russian gas transit will lead to a crumbling Europe in a supply crisis. Such a crisis is not going to be forthcoming, so it must be invented for propaganda in Moldova–the easiest country to destabilize.
