At Least 10 Dead as Powerful Snowstorm Hit Ukraine
- BBC.co.uk
Ukraine – At least 10 people have died and thousands injured after powerful snowstorm hit Ukraine, an official stated on Tuesday.
Meteorologist organizations across the region predicted winds of 40-50 mph and more than a foot of snow in some areas.
Officials with Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs Lhor Kylmenko reported that blizzard conditions killed 10 people, including children. The deaths were reported in Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv. More than 20 others were injured.
Bendera Ukraina berkibar di tengah Kota Kharkiv kota kedua terbesar di negara
- AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
More than 400 settlements across 11 regions were without electricity, and more than 1,500 responders were trying to reach thousands of people in need of rescue, Kylmenko added.
Videos showed Ukrainian police battling fierce winds as they pushed and towed cars back onto icy highways after they had slid off-road into ditches.
The storm also hit occupied Crimea, prompting Russian-appointed officials to announce a state of emergency in parts of the peninsula.
The worst of the storm that hit Ukraine on Sunday appears to have passed, but another powerful low-pressure system will hit the country late Tuesday through Wednesday, unleashing rounds of additional heavy snow, wind and rain.
Snow totals – which measure how much snow has fallen – frrom the current storm will be highest across the mountainous southwestern regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakapattia, where the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center has warned of “considerable danger” of avalanches.
Odesa weather forecasters believe the current snowfall has become the heaviest in the last five years. Odesa meteoroligists say the current snowfall is the heaviest in the last five years.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Maryana Reva said that snow drifts in some places had reached 2 meters high. She told Ukrainian television that the south was worst affected, with five deaths recorded in Odesa region.
The storm hit as Ukrainians continue to live through challenging conditions that have come from Russia’s war on the country. Infrastructure and basic services have been compromised already in many places, and the extreme weather is compounding those problems.
