MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Power lines have frozen over in more than forty settlements in Ukraine leading to the largest electricity outages the country has seen since 1945, the country’s energy ministry said.

"Forty-four settlements in Ukraine have been left without electricity due to inclement weather in Ukraine. The situation is the most challenging in the Kirovograd Region. More than thirty settlements have had no power for more than a day - almost 2,500 consumers in total. The reason is the freezing of overhead power lines with a diameter of 60-89 mm. Such figures have not been recorded going back to 1945 when observations started," the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

Getting things back to normal has been slow-going due to repeated thefts of de-energized power lines, it added.