Ukraine’s power grid experienced mass outages yesterday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said.

The outages knocked out water supplies to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and prompted a complete shutdown of the city’s metro network, paralysing transport for thousands.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the incident an “emergency” and said restoration work was underway.

“The task is to stabilise the situation soon,” he said on Telegram.

The issue piles further pressure on Ukraine’s energy grid, which was already in a fragile state due to weeks of intense Russian bombardment.

Kyiv’s metro system completely suspended operations yesterday due to the power cut.