Ukraine’s energy minister said Ukraine’s power grid suffered a massive outage for several hours on Saturday after a “technical fault” caused power lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail.
Ukraine suffers widespread power outages due to technical glitchesUkraine’s Energy Minister Denis Shmygal said that by Saturday evening, power companies had restored power to all parts of Kiev.
Kiev’s metro system suspended operations completely during the power outage, crippling transportation for thousands. Emergency services helped evacuate about 500 passengers stranded on the network when the power went out.
This is the first time since the war with Russia started in 2022. A few hours later the network was back on.
Shamigal said in a telegram that a “technical error” caused the outage “simultaneously shutting down the 400-kilovolt line between Romania and Moldova’s power grid and the 750-kilovolt line between western and central Ukraine.”
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the incident an ‘urgency’. Addressing the evening, he said: “The reasons are being investigated in detail.”
But he added: “So far, there is no evidence of external interference or cyber-attacks. Further information indicates that the weather conditions caused the lines to freeze, leading to automatic shutdowns.”
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Much of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, was temporarily without power, although it was back on line by 3:40 p.m., according to the Moldovan Ministry of Energy. Moldova produces its own energy but imports some, mainly from Romania, as well as Ukraine.
Ukraine’s former Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, which still needs power, particularly to keep its cooling and control systems running, experienced a brief power outage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
“No direct impact on nuclear safety is expected, but the overall situation remains uncertain,” the IAEA posted on X.
The incident put further pressure on Ukraine’s energy grid, which was already in a fragile state due to weeks of intense Russian bombing.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during its nearly four-year invasion but Kiev says this winter has been its toughest yet, with attacks cutting power and leaving millions stranded in sub-zero temperatures.
The Kremlin, which has bombed Ukraine’s energy grid for weeks, said on Friday it had refrained from attacking Kiev until Sunday after a request from US President Donald Trump.
According to data released last year, about 800,000 passengers use the Kyiv metro system daily.
Residents used its 52 stations as bomb shelters during Russian attacks.
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