A technical malfunction around 10:42am local time disabled a 400-kV cross-border line and a 750-kV domestic line, triggering large blackouts in Ukraine and Moldova. Kyiv lost water service and its metro was taken out of service, while parts of Chisinau also went dark. Nuclear plants reduced output and Chernobyl briefly lost off-site power, though the IAEA reported no direct safety impact. Restoration to critical infrastructure was achieved within hours, but household supply and full grid recovery remained in progress.
Technical Fault Triggers Widespread Blackouts in Ukraine and Moldova — Kyiv Metro, Water and Power Disrupted
A woman visits the National Art Museum in Kyiv during the power cut that impacted lights, heating, water and transport in the war-besieged city (Sergei GAPON)(Sergei GAPON/AFP/AFP)
Ukraine and Moldova experienced large-scale power outages on Saturday after officials reported a technical malfunction that knocked out high-voltage lines linking the two countries and domestic transmission routes. The blackout cut water supplies across Kyiv, forced a rare shutdown of the city's metro system and left parts of Moldova's capital, Chisinau, without electricity.
Ukraine's energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said the disruption began at about 10:42am local time (08:42 GMT) when a 400-kilovolt cross-border line and a 750-kilovolt domestic line went offline. Authorities said they were treating the incident as an accident and dismissed suggestions of a cyberattack.
Impact on Infrastructure and Residents
The outage immediately affected Kyiv and surrounding regions, including Zhytomyr and Kharkiv. Municipal utility Kyivvodokanal reported water supply interruptions across all districts of Kyiv. The Kyiv metro — used by roughly 800,000 passengers daily and frequently used as a bomb shelter during attacks — was taken out of service, an uncommon move in its roughly 65-year history.
Traffic lights failed in many locations, prompting police to direct junctions manually. In Moldova, Mayor Ion Ceban said a large portion of Chisinau lost power. Emergency measures were put in place to manage road safety and essential services.
Nuclear Facilities And Safety Notes
Ukraine's three operational nuclear power plants were forced to "unload" generation capacity following the grid disruption, the energy ministry said, noting that bringing units back to nominal output takes time. The decommissioned Chernobyl site briefly lost off-site power; the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) reported no direct impact on nuclear safety but described the overall situation as precarious.
Restoration Efforts
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the incident as an "emergency." Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, reported it had restored electricity to most critical infrastructure in Kyiv about three hours after the outage began. The company and grid operators emphasized that staged restoration was necessary to avoid overloading damaged networks and to prevent further faults.
Ukraine's state grid operator cautioned that power shortages remained significant and that emergency rolling cuts were still in effect in Kyiv City, Kyiv Region, Cherkasy Region, Chernivtsi Region, Zhytomyr Region and Kharkiv Region. Moldova's energy minister said power in his country was expected to return within "an hour or two" after the outage.
Officials' Position: Authorities have not publicly identified the precise technical cause of the line failures. Investigations and repairs were under way at the time of reporting.
Authorities continue to monitor the situation closely as restoration proceeds in stages to protect the grid and public safety.
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