Zelensky offers Ukrainian coal to ease energy crisis in Transnistria [Video]

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine was prepared to send coal to fuel a major power plant in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria, hit by an unprecedented energy crisis.

The territory, wedged between Ukraine and Moldova, has suffered heating and electricity cut-offs since the start of the year when a Kyiv-Moscow gas transit contract, which had allowed Russian gas to flow there, expired.

During a press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Kyiv, Zelensky said his war-battered country could send coal to power the Cuciurgan power station in Transnistria.

The plant which previously ran on Russian gas imported via Ukraine has since been powered by coal. It previously supplied about 70 percent of Moldova’s electricity.

“We have coal that we can actually supply to Moldova, we can supply to Tiraspol. If they really want people to have electricity,” Zelensky said, referring to separatist authorities in the main …