The Moscow region faced a day of extraordinary disruption as the heaviest snowfall in decades blanketed the area, prompting urgent declarations from regional authorities. The governor, Andrei Vorobyov, described road conditions as extremely challenging as crews battled to clear streets and highways across the region. The update was published on the governor’s official website and shared via the regional telegram channel, underscoring the severity of the weather and the scale of the response.
Officials reported that the most strained stretches of the road network were in Mozhaisk, Leninsky, Lobnya, and Podolsk. In these towns, additional forces were mobilized to reinforce snow-clearing operations, ensuring critical routes remained passable for emergency services, public transit, and residents needing essential supplies. The effort called in a broad mobilization of manpower and machinery designed to cut through deep snow, slush, and ice that were forming rapidly as the snowfall continued.
Vorobyov himself provided a granular picture of the night’s operations: nearly three thousand people and more than two thousand units of equipment were deployed to clean roads and streets across the region. He noted that in some areas, rain accompanied the snow, which accelerated the formation of ice on sidewalks and road surfaces. The combination of precipitation types created hazardous conditions that required continuous monitoring and rapid adaptation by snow-removal crews, traffic police, and utility teams working in shifts around the clock.
The governor’s remarks also touched on the broader regional impact, highlighting the way weather-related disruptions ripple through daily life. Power infrastructure began to feel the strain as the snow and ice take their toll on electrical grids. The situation in the Moscow region echoed similar challenges facing nearby communities, where weather systems can quickly translate into communication outages and interrupted services for hundreds of thousands of residents.
In a parallel update, authorities noted that the snowfall had forced significant outages in the Donetsk People’s Republic, leaving about half a million people without communications in the wake of the storm. While the two areas are distinct, the incident underscores how severe winter weather can disrupt essential services on a large scale, complicating relief and recovery efforts across multiple jurisdictions.
At about the same time, the regional power sector reported that by the evening of November 26, roughly 20,500 people were without electricity. By the morning of November 27, more than forty high-voltage substations and numerous lines rated at 110 kV and 35 kV were still out of service. Power outages affected the entire DPR territory, depriving roughly half a million people of electricity and prompting emergency measures to prioritize restoration work and restore critical infrastructure to service as soon as possible.
Earlier reporting indicated traffic disruptions due to snow in the city centers, with trucks and large vehicles experiencing delays in entering certain corridors. The combination of heavy snowfall, ice buildup, and limited visibility created conditions that demanded heightened traffic management, optimized routing for emergency and utility crews, and ongoing public advisories to minimize risk while maintaining essential mobility for residents and service providers.