Many Ukrainians have fled to Moldova to escape the war in their country. The Moldovan government has made the process easier to accommodate them. A shared history as former Soviet states, along with shared bilingualism,

Moldova's Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniestria extended its state of emergency on Friday for another month as it grapples with an energy crisis after losing access to Russian gas supplies that had propped up its economy for decades.

"We are ready to assist Moldova, including with coal supplies," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address after discussing the crisis with Sandu by telephone. Sandu, in a statement issued on the presidential website,

The head of Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria has urged residents to burn firewood for heating and warned that blackouts cannot be avoided, after Moscow stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.

More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 apartment buildings had no winter heat in Moldova's pro-Russian separatist enclave, authorities said on Monday, as Moldova and Russia traded blame for an escalating energy crisis.

International recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea in exchange for an end to the war in Ukraine would only harm U.S. and European interests and destabilize Eastern Europe.

The end of Russian natural-gas transit across Ukraine is a blow to Moscow, but it could provide the Kremlin with sharpened tool for economic and political influence over a key target country: Moldova.

Authorities in Moldova's separatist Transdniestria region on Sunday cut off gas supplies to several state institutions as a deal allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine comes to an end at the close of the year.

More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 buildings had no heating in Moldova’s separatist region Transdniestria.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Wednesday discussed using Ukrainian coal to ease the energy crisis which has subjected Moldova's separatist Transdniestria region to blackouts and a heating shortage.

The buzzing sound of chainsaws and generators is now common in Varnița, a village of 5,000 that borders Moldova's Russian-controlled region of Transnistria. Located next to the Russian-controlled city of Bender (Tighina),