Ukraine’s power grid experienced mass outages on Saturday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said.
The outages knocked out water supplies to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and prompted a complete shutdown of the city’s metro network, paralysing transport for thousands.
“Today at 10.42am a technical malfunction occurred, causing a simultaneous shutdown of the 400-kilovolt line between the power grids of Romania and Moldova and the 750-kilovolt line between western and central Ukraine,” said energy minister Denys Shmyhal on Telegram.
“Power will be restored within the next few hours,” he added.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called the incident an “emergency” and said restoration work was under way.
People line up at a bus stop during sub-zero temperatures in Ukraine’s Kharkiv on Saturday. Photo: Reuters
“The task is to stabilise the situation soon,” he said on Telegram.