Large parts of Ukraine and Moldova were left without electricity on Saturday after a technical failure on high voltage transmission lines disrupted power supplies, affecting major cities including Kyiv and Chisinau, officials said.
The outage forced Ukraine’s capital to suspend metro services and cut water supply, while traffic systems and public transport were knocked offline in Moldova’s capital. Authorities said the disruption was caused by equipment malfunction rather than military or cyber activity.
The incident underscored the fragility of the regional power network as winter demand rises and Ukraine’s grid remains under strain following repeated Russian air strikes over the past months.
The blackout began at 10:42 a.m. local time and spread across at least five Ukrainian regions as well as several districts in Moldova, according to government officials.
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In Kyiv, subway trains stopped running and station lights dimmed, leaving passengers waiting underground for service to resume. Water supply was also temporarily halted across the city.
In Chisinau, Mayor Ion Ceban said most districts lost electricity, disabling traffic lights and disrupting public transport across the capital.
Ukraine’s digital ministry said the outage was not linked to a cyber incident. Officials also stopped short of blaming war related damage, though they acknowledged the grid remains under heavy pressure.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said the blackout was triggered by a simultaneous failure on two high voltage transmission lines. One connects Romania and Moldova, while the other links western and central Ukraine.
The shutdown activated automatic safety systems at substations and led to the temporary disconnection of nuclear power units from Ukraine’s grid, Shmyhal said.
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Moldova’s energy ministry said problems inside Ukraine’s electricity network caused a voltage drop on the line connecting Moldova to Romania, triggering the outage there.
Romania’s energy ministry did not immediately comment.
Emergency crews in both countries worked to stabilize the interconnected grids, restoring electricity to many areas by early afternoon.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of Kyiv’s independent Energy Research Center, said the system was recovering steadily. “By evening, we will be back to where we were before the accident,” he told Reuters.
The blackout came as colder weather returned to the region, increasing demand on energy systems already weakened by months of infrastructure stress.
Russia had agreed to pause attacks on energy facilities until February 1 following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump, with Kyiv saying it would do the same. Neither side reported major strikes during the blackout period.
