"An important task now is to help Moldova overcome its energy challenges and prevent Moscow from stirring up social tensions. ... We are ready to help," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 8.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine is ready to provide Moldova with the resources necessary to overcome the energy crisis that occurred in the

"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,

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 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.

Zelenskyy made the statement after a phone call with Moldovan President Maia Sandu earlier the same day. “Of course, the main goal is to help Moldova through this difficult period of energy challenges and prevent Moscow from inciting social unrest,

Russia denies using gas as a weapon to coerce Moldova, and blames Kyiv for refusing to renew a gas-transit deal.

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.

Moldova’s Transnistria region has been thrust into an energy crisis following the termination of a gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

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.

Moscow breakaway region of Transnistria halted almost all industrial activity except for food production, following the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine, Interfax reported.

(Reuters) -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.