Local media reported that many people are resorting to burning wood in an attempt to keep warm as temperatures drop to below freezing. The press has also reported that state forests are now providing wood free of charge to anybody who can collect it.

The crisis started on January 1 when Ukraine terminated a gas transit deal that allowed Transnistria to get an abundant supply of cheap Russian gas.

The Russian-speaking region, an unrecognized separatist state which is home to around half a million people, had been heavily dependent on Russian gas since it broke away from Moldova in 1991 following a brief conflict.

It has long been regarded as an island of Russian influence in southeast Europe, and the presence of around 1,500 Russian peacekeepers presiding over a frozen conflict has hampered Moldovan plans to integrate into western Europe.

As part of emergency measures, Transnistria has also stopped all industrial activity except for food production, in a move that even the government has said could cause irreparable damage to the region’s economy.

"It is too early to judge how the situation will develop,” Sergei Obolonik, first deputy prime minister of the region, told a local news channel. “The problem of gas supply is so complex that, if it is not solved quickly, we will experience irreversible changes. This means that enterprises will lose the opportunity to reopen and operate again.”

The crisis has also led to public transport being curtailed and a rise in taxi fares.

Ordinary citizens have been ordered to switch to diesel or gasoline to power their cars, as methane has been reserved for governmental vehicles and state-owned enterprises.

The head of the Moldovan national gas company Moldovagaz, Vadim Ceban, said his company had told the gas distribution company in the separatist enclave, Tiraspoltransgaz, that it was willing to help purchase gas from European countries to ease shortages.

But any gas supplied to the region would have to be paid for at market prices, he told TV8 television.

Moldova has said that it has managed to secure enough energy supplies to make up for any shortfall due to the problems in its breakaway region, allaying fears, at least for the moment, that the crisis will spill over.