'We are freezing to death'...toll of blackouts at -16C

CRITICAL infrastructure in Kyiv and much of the western half of Ukraine shut down suddenly on Saturday, just as a blistering frost took hold.

- JOHN MARONE

helped to safety after underground trains power outage

Long used to unscheduled blackouts and widespread shutoffs of heat and water following Moscow’s month-long air assault on its power plants, the city of three million suddenly found itself with virtually no utilities at all.

Even the Metro system, a bastion of affordable reliability in the worst of times, stopped dead in its tracks, leaving commuters huddled in front of turnstiles on the blink.

Rescuers had to be called in to extract one unlucky trainload of passengers who found themselves trapped in one of the system’s cavernous underground shafts, 100 metres below the city with no light.

Authorities called the shutdown “a technical disruption” related to power lines that run into Moldova and Romania.