A nationwide power outage hit Moldova on January 31 after a serious failure in Ukraine’s electricity network triggered the collapse of a key high-voltage transmission line, cutting power to large parts of the country, including the capital, Chisinau.
Authorities said electricity supply was fully restored later the same day.
The blackout began at 10:42 a.m. local time, when voltage collapsed on the 400 kV Isaccea–Vulcanesti–MGRES transmission line, which Moldova uses to import electricity from Romania via Ukraine and the Russian-backed Transdniester region, according to the Energy Ministry.
The failure forced an emergency disconnection of Moldova’s entire power system, as Moldova and Ukraine operate within a shared electricity generation bloc.
Large parts of Chisinau were left without electricity, halting trolleybus services, knocking out traffic lights and disrupting border and customs operations. The police warned that non-functioning traffic signals increased the risk of accidents, deploying officers to major intersections and urging drivers to slow down and follow road signs.
Border crossings faced delays as outages hit customs facilities. While backup generators were activated, Ukraine’s Border Police said manual processing was required due to technical failures at the main customs headquarters. Moldova’s Health Ministry said all affected medical facilities switched to emergency power supplies.
In a statement issued after 4 p.m. local time, Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said electricity distribution operators had completed reconnecting end consumers to low-voltage networks.
“At present, the National Power System is operating within normal parameters,” Junghietu said in a social media post.
The outage lasted more than five hours, authorities said. The full scale of the disruption remains unclear, including how many people and localities were affected. Shortly after the incident, Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban said the “largest part” of the capital had been left without electricity.
Moldova’s electricity transmission operator Moldelectrica said the incident likely also brought down 110 kV lines critical to supplying power to the country’s northern and southern regions.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said that by 2 p.m. local time, electricity supply had been restored to critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the surrounding Kyiv region and the Dnipropetrovsk region, with a gradual reconnection of household consumers underway. Power was also being restored in the Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Odesa regions.
Shmyhal said Ukraine’s energy system remained operational and unified, with dispatchers at the national grid operator Ukrenergo monitoring the situation. However, he warned the country continued to face a significant electricity deficit, with several regions remaining under emergency outage schedules.
Ukrainian authorities said the disruptions were caused by emergency shutdowns linked to extreme weather conditions, dismissing speculation about a cyberattack.
The outage came amid continued strain on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure following repeated Russian strikes. Days earlier, US President Donald Trump said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to pause strikes for one week, a request Trump said Putin accepted. The Kremlin later said it had agreed to halt attacks until February 1.
The same date was originally chosen for a follow-up round of talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said that the date and location of the next US-mediated talks on ending the war may change. On January 31, he added that Kyiv was waiting for further information from the United States about the talks.
"Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats," said Zelenskyy.
Separately, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was leading negotiations between the countries, said he held constructive talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida, adding that Washington was "encouraged" by the meeting.
