In Pics: Icy snowstorm sweeps Ukraine as people battle frozen roads, high winds

Ukraine was hit by the worst of the storms on Sunday and the country will be hit by another powerful low-pressure system late on Tuesday (Nov 28) and Wednesday (Nov 29) which will unleash multiple rounds of heavy snow, wind and rain.
 

Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko on Tuesday (Nov 28) said that ten people have lost their lives in the snowstorms after the country was swept by icy storms and winds since Sunday which blocked roads and snapped out of electricity.

The worst affected was the Southern Ukraine, especially the Black Sea region of Odesa. Buses and cars slid off frozen roads into fields and high winds were battled by the police as they towed the vehicles out.

Taking to the Telegram app, Klymenko said that there was no electricity in nearly 411 settlements in 11 regions, and nearly 1,500 vehicles needed to be rescued.

"As a result of worsening weather conditions, 10 people died in Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions. Twenty-three people were injured, including two children," wrote Klymenko, on the Telegram app.

Governor of the Odesa region Oleh Kiper stated that nearly 2,500 people were rescued after they were trapped in the snow. "849 vehicles have been towed out, including 24 buses and 17 ambulances," wrote Kiper, while writing on the Telegram app.

In the videos, Ukrainian police were seen battling fierce winds and pushing and towing cars back onto icy highways after some cars slid off-road into ditches. In many places, infrastructure and basic services were compromised, and such problems are being compounded by the extreme weather.

Parts of occupied Crimea were hit by storm which led to Russian-appointed officials announcing a state of emergency in different parts of the peninsula.

Russian-appointed head of the peninsula Sergey Aksenov in occupied Crimea announced a state of emergency in various 10 municipalities. “Yesterday I reported the situation to our President [Vladimir Putin], who gave instructions to the federal government to allocate funds for the restoration of the destroyed infrastructure,” wrote Aksenov on Telegram.