Hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans went without heating on Thursday, some hospitals closed and more factories were idle as the impact on the hardest-hit region in the Russia-Ukraine gas row grew.
Around 100,000 households in Bosnia were left in the cold, about 80,000 people in Serbia's second largest city Novi Sad had their gas heating cut off and other Serbian cities were hit. One Serbian hospital closed as did several health centres.
"We are managing somehow, but I don't know what will happen in case of the power cuts," Svetlana Petrovic, chief nurse at the hospital in the Serbian town of Gornji Milanovac.
The small hospital closed because its heating system was operating on natural gas, but around 50 patients remained anyway, using electric heaters to keep some rooms warm.
In Bulgaria, at least 65,000 households were without central heating when temperatures hit minus 10 degrees Celsius on Thursday. Some shops said they had run out of electric heaters.
"Electricity distribution will not survive another hike in consumption," CEZ power utility, which supplies western Bulgaria and the capital Sofia, said in a statement.
Supplies of electric heaters also ran short in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, where citizens recalled how they survived the 1990s war with little heat. Demand for wood and coal has increased five-fold.
Companies across central and eastern Europe were forced to close when Russian gas flows to the continent via Ukraine stopped completely on Wednesday.
"At the moment the whole economy is on its knees," said Konstantin Trenchev, head of Bulgaria's second-largest trade union Podkrepa, which organised a small demonstration in front of the Ukrainian embassy.
FACTORIES SHUT
Sofia halted gas supplies to 72 big industrial consumers and sharply lowered deliveries to another 153 companies due to limited domestic reserves. The government of the poorest European Union nation asked the EU for funds for new pipelines to ease its dependence on Russian gas.
An alumina plant in Bosnia, two Slovak car factories and a steel mill and a Hungarian car maker shut. Many producers had already been suffering amid the world financial crisis.
In Macedonia, the largest steel exporter shut its doors and forced its 1,000 workers to take vacation days. A pipe making factory also closed.
Serbia's largest drug producer Hemofarm said it was not able to resume production after the holiday break.
Bosnia's sole alumina plant Birac, majority owned by Lithuania's Ukio Bank Investment Group, halted production. The largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal Zenica, a unit of ArcelorMittal, partially suspended operations.
Bosnian car parts maker Famos said it may also halt production, and some schools closed. Croatia considered extending the winter school vacation another week.
Dozens of kindergartens and 68 schools were closed and trams and buses in the Bulgarian capital Sofia switched off the heat, even as most of the region suffered below zero temperatures.
Snow in Serbia, Bosnia and elsewhere slowed transport of alternative fuels or heating units.
Countries including Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia, dependent on Russian natural gas imports, were left without back up supplies, although Hungary agreed to share some of its reserve with Serbia. Greece and Croatia had several weeks of supply and were exploring alternative fuel sources of fuel, officials said.
Many Balkan countries have no alternative routes and rely almost entirely on Russian gas, which stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine completely on Wednesday after dwindling since Jan 1.
Regional financial markets suffered and Serbia's dinar hit a record low. "There is a growing expectation that power and oil monopolies will have to step up imports due to the problems with gas and that the dinar will fall," a senior banker said.
