Some electronic payments systems in Ukraine disrupted

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KYIV (Reuters) -Electronic payments systems in post offices, restaurants and the metro system were out of action in Ukraine early on Saturday, according to officials and Reuters witnesses.

Ukraine has in the past said it was the target of cyberattacks by Russia, but there was no immediate indication of any hostile action behind the disruptions on Saturday.

The Kyiv city authorities said outages with the payment system in the capital’s metro transport system was the result of a technical fault with a bank that operates the system.

In a McDonald’s restaurant in the centre of Kyiv, staff told customers electronic payment terminals were not working and they could only accept cash.

Oleksandr Fediyenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s National Security Committee, posted a video of himself in a post office being told their system was down nationwide.

“It’s not a cyberattack, it’s a technical issue,” he wrote on his Telegram account.

Reuters reporters said some commercial banking apps were not working, and that the Diya application, which provides citizens with online access to state services, was also out of action.

(Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Susan Fenton)