British News Agency

Ukrainian Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said that the power outages on Saturday were caused by a technical failure affecting the power lines connecting Ukraine and Moldova. He stated that the failure "caused a chain reaction outage in Ukraine's power grid" and triggered automatic protection systems.

The power outages were experienced not only in Kyiv but also in Zhytomyr in the center of the country and Kharkiv in the northeast.

Authorities said that the outage cut off water supply to the Ukrainian capital, and the city's metro system was temporarily suspended due to low voltage in the grid. The State Emergency Service reported that its teams evacuated 500 passengers trapped in metro stations.

Officials also said that Moldova, including its capital Chișinău, experienced major power outages. Moldova’s Minister of Energy Dorin Junghietu posted on Facebook, "Due to the disconnection of power lines on Ukrainian territory, the automatic protection system was activated, and a power outage occurred. I ask the public to remain calm until the electricity is restored."

This widespread outage followed weeks of Russian attacks on Ukraine's already struggling power grid, leading to prolonged serious power cuts.

Forecasters say Ukraine will experience a very cold period that will last until next week. Authorities stated that temperatures in some areas could drop to as low as -30°C.