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What Moldova's emergency declaration meant on 17 December 2024
Summary
A look back at a day when Moldova's 60-day state of emergency over gas supplies had begun and Canada's military aid for Ukraine was recently approved.
What did Moldova's national state of emergency mean on 17 December 2024, its second day in force? Parliament had voted on 13 December to declare a 60-day emergency beginning on 16 December. The reason given was that Ukraine had not renewed its transit contract with Gazprom to deliver Russian gas to Moldova.
The decision came in the context of Moldova's closeness to the war next door. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moldova accepted Ukrainian refugees, opened a bank account for donations, and unofficially imposed sanctions on Russia.
Aid from Canada
A separate development concerned Ukraine's military support. On 11 December 2024, the Parliament of Canada approved the allocation of CA$764 million (US$587 million) in military aid to Ukraine. The approval was already several days old by 17 December.
Two threads, one day
Taken together, the two items show how the war's effects reached beyond the front line. In Chisinau, lawmakers had responded to the end of the gas transit arrangement with an emergency declaration lasting 60 days. In Ottawa, parliamentarians had backed a sizeable sum of military aid for Kyiv.
The emergency, running from 16 December, was set to last 60 days.
