While Russia and Ukraine found new ways to disagree about restoring gas supplies to Europe yesterday mothers and their newborn infants huddled into the one maternity ward left with any heating in the main hospital in Sofia.

Shops in the Bulgarian capital have run out of electric heaters and families scoured the city for help to keep warm as temperatures fell to minus 20C (-4F).

The former Soviet Bloc nation is almost totally reliant on natural gas from Russia but here, as in the other former Iron Curtain countries cut off during Moscow’s dispute with Kiev, people have begun to question the wisdom of dependence on its one-time protector.

A dozen nations denied gas since Wednesday were warned yesterday that even when the taps were turned back on by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned fuel company, it could take three days for supplies to reach consumers.

Monitors arrived in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, yesterday afternoon to check the flow of gas under a European Union plan to persuade Moscow to restart supplies cut off because it suspected Ukraine of stealing gas intended for Europe.

Gazprom steadfastly refused to turn the gas back on unless it received a written contract setting out the exact duties of the monitors. This led to Mirek Topo-lanek, the Czech Prime Minister and holder of the EU rotating presidency, to plan a visit today to appeal to Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister.

In Eastern Europe, where leaders have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis unless the supply is restored, there was growing desperation. “I have already tried smaller shops and their heaters are all sold out. I am ready to fight for those heaters,” said a 45-year-old father queueing in front of a utility store in Sofia.

In the Black Sea port of Varna, which has been without gas for days, residents protested in front of the Russian Consulate holding banners that read “Stop the Gas War of Putin”.

Sergei Stanishev, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, described the situation as “the worst-ever crisis” and Georgi Parvanov, the President, announced that the country would seek financial compensation from Russia.

Serbia, another country used to relying on Russia, clinched a gas lease deal with Hungary but Bosnia, still struggling to recover from the civil war in the 1990s, was unable to cope when more than 100,000 households were left without heating. Sven Alkalaj, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders with a protest note, saying that the population of his country should not “be held hostages” in a dispute between Kiev and Moscow.

Dimitrije Boarov, a journalist with the Serbian daily newspaper Danas, said: “It turns out that by threatening Europe through this dispute with Ukraine, Russia is in fact punishing mostly Bulgaria and Serbia, which are its main traditional [allies] in the Balkans.”

In Bulgaria, critics protested when it emerged that prisons did not have an alternative to gas-powered heating while zoos were switching to electric.

“You can close down schools and other public institutions but you cannot simply shut down a prison,” a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said.

Ivan Ivanov, a zoo director, said: “Only the Siberian tigers feel comfortable in these temperatures.”

The European Commission insisted that it had reached an agreement with Ukrainian and Russian leaders, despite delays caused by demands from Gazprom.

European energy ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday to examine whether the terms of the agreement are being applied and to assess how to avoid the EU being held hostage in similar energy conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.

Times Recommends

• Would you live on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall?
• Wish you were here, says Iraq tourist board
• Russian policeman’s corruption plea to Putin