MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. The Transnistrian authorities see no major migration outflows amid an energy crisis, Vitaly Ignatyev, the unrecognized republic’s top diplomat, told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"People are looking for ways to continue their normal life but we haven’t recorded major migration outflows. Many people are moving in with their friends and relatives. We have a power generating station in the town of Dnestrovsk, and this is where many Transnistrians have been forced to relocate," he said.
The top diplomat pointed out that if the crisis grew worse, the republic’s coal and gas reserves would not be enough. "The coal supplies are limited and will last us 50 days. There is currently enough gas in our system to supply it to households, but no longer than for 20 days. If, God forbid, the gas system fails, it won’t be possible to quickly restore normal gas supplies to household customers," he said.
As of now, the Transnistrian authorities are using the gas accumulated in pipelines to supply it to households. "We managed to accumulate certain amounts of gas in the pipeline and we are using it to let people prepare food. We are doing everything we can to save energy and ensure stable supplies. There is hope that we will be able to slightly change the schedule of power outages. We set up a crisis center and first addressed the issue as early as last year. We purchased power generators and other equipment. All social facilities remain heated and continue to operate normally," Ignatyev added.
The foreign minister said that some people had been killed trying to keep warm. "Unfortunately, I must say that the humanitarian and energy crisis has made the situation worse in terms of fatalities. People who use stoves leave them burning through the night. Gas water heaters and carbon monoxide emissions have to be taken into account. We have recorded several fatalities," he noted.