THOUSANDS of Bulgarians, Bosnians and Serbs were left in the cold and some companies and schools closed down yesterday after Russian gas supplies to south-eastern Europe dried up.
The disruption in Bosnia brought back bitter memories of the 1992-95 conflict when heating was often off in winter. "It all reminds me of the war when we were freezing, except there is no shooting," said Hilmo Celjo, who stood in a queue on the outsk
irts of Sarajevo to buy wood and coal.
The western Balkans and Bulgaria, the poorest European Union nation, were among the worst hit by a cut in Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine over a price row.
They have no access to alternative routes and rely almost entirely on Russian gas, which stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine completely yesterday after dwindling since 1 January.
At least 45,000 households in Bulgaria were without central heating yesterday. Dozens of schools were closed, with close to 76,000 households in Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo, and over 3,000 in the eastern town of Zvornik, left shivering.
Shops in Sarajevo ran out of electric heaters after residents rushed in panic to secure alternative heat sources as temperatures hit -15C overnight.
In Serbia, officials said they had no more reserves and that tens of thousands of people had lost heating when most were at home to celebrate Orthodox Christmas.
People in Serbia's second largest city, Novi Sad, where a third of the population of more than 200,000 rely on natural gas for heating, were unable to convert to other fuels. Neither Bosnia nor Serbia has gas reserves to fall back on.
Petar Dimitrov, Bulgaria's economy and energy minister, said: "This is an absurd situation for the 21st century. Russia and Ukraine must find a quick solution as the economies of half of Europe are at risk."
Croatia announced a state of emergency, which allows it to begin rationing to industrial users. Romania and Bulgaria held national security meetings to address the issue, while Hungary and Slovakia, which receives all of its gas from Russia, began reducing natural gas deliveries to big industrial customers.
Norway, another big gas supplier to Europe, said it cannot do much to offset the Russian shortfalls because it was at near maximum production and pipeline capacity for exports.
All this has come as much as the continent battles freezing conditions. Temperatures in Poland, one of the affected countries, have fallen to -25C and killed seven people.
In an attempt to force a resolution to the dispute the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, took the unusual measure of issuing an ultimatum to the feuding parties yesterday.
Mr Topolanek gave Russia and Ukraine 24 hours to come to an agreement. "If supplies are not restored tomorrow then we will have to see strong EU intervention," he said.
Representatives from the Ukrainian firm Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom are due to meet in Moscow today.
Many in Ukraine believe that Gazprom's actions are intended to punish Ukraine for its pro-western stance, and to warn it against any plans for closer co-operation with the West.
Robert Wood, a US state department spokesman, put the blame on Moscow. "Cutting off these supplies during winter to a vulnerable population is just unacceptable to us," he said.
Both sides have good reasons to resolve rowENERGY experts believe the gas drought will not last longer than a few days.
Analysts point out it is not in the interests of either Ukraine and Russia to prolong the dispute much longer. "I would expect in the next seven to ten days we will see a resolution," Nick McGregor, an oil and gas analyst with the stockbroker Redmayne Bentley, said.
While the gas remains off, Ukraine's hopes of courting the West suffer, and the country risks isolation at a time it can ill afford.
Moscow has its own reasons to get the gas flowing again. "Russia needs the money now," Mr McGregor said. "They have used their reserves in countering the financial crisis, so they don't want to see financial disruption."
Alternatives to Europe's dependency on Russian gas remain scant – a move towards more liquid natural gas consumption remains hamstrung by limited infrastructure. Central and southern Europe will suffer most, and this could result in some form of rationing.
Jerome Guillet, an investment banker active in the energy sector, believes the only real long-term option is more green energy and greater efficiency.
