President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the restrictions on public transport services, including subways, in Ukrainian cities were driven by the necessity to eliminate crowds and save people's lives.

"First of all, we should not wait for some number of cases in Ukraine. So, we have to close all places where there are big crowds of people. Subway is a priority," he said in the Svoboda Slova (Freedom of Speech) program on the ICTV television channel on Monday.

Earlier, the commission for security against man-made disasters and emergency situations, chaired by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, decided to suspend the operation of subways in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro on March 17.