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Ukraine’s power grid is experiencing mass outages on Saturday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said.
“Today at 10:42 am (0842 GMT), 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,” Denys Shmyhal posted on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy has confirmed that the emergency situation in the power grid was not caused by a cyberattack.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, confirmed emergency power shutdowns in Kyiv and its surrounding region in the morning.
Residents in Kyiv are experiencing energy, heating, and water outages following the accident amid freezing temperatures, local media reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted that restoration work was ongoing, adding that the task was to stabilise the situation as soon as possible.
The incident follows Russia’s months-long campaign targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, which has inflicted severe damage to the energy system.
This is a developing story. Our journalists are updating it.
