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Half of Republic of Moldova without power after Russian strikes on Ukraine.

According to the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu, Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure triggered cascading grid failures in Moldova, causing “a massive blackout” across the country. Some 90 % of north-Moldova and large swathes of the centre and south were cut off temporarily as power supplies were disrupted. The outage forced emergency restrictions, diversion of resources, and heavy reliance on neighbouring Romania for electricity imports. Geographically the disruption impacted Moldova’s entire grid, not just border regions, underscoring the country’s vulnerability to spill-over effects from its neighbour’s war. The dynamics illustrate how Russia’s hybrid-warfare toolkit includes targeting or indirectly affecting adjacent states through attacks on infrastructure-networks—in this case, by striking Ukraine but causing collateral impact in Moldova. Though Moldova was not the primary target of the strike, the incident demonstrates how its infrastructure can become collateral damage in the broader hybrid conflict. By forcing Moldova to respond, import energy, and manage widespread blackout risk, the event imposed strategic cost and exposed the country’s limited resilience and dependence on external energy systems.

Occurrence

2022-11-23

Publication

2022-11-22T23:00:00Z

First observed

2026-09-24T06:09:10.079Z

Review status

Not assessed

Countries

MD

Updated

2026-09-27T23:56:59.668Z