Cold front brings winter back to central, eastern Ukraine

A cold front swept across central and eastern Ukraine in the early hours of Wednesday, bringing heavy snow and extremely cold weather to six regions there, authorities said.

The wet snow together with gusty winds brought down power lines in 152 cities and towns, leaving thousands of people without electricity, said the State Emergency Service.

The extreme spring weather bringing freezing temperatures after the end of the heating season has forced the closure of schools in the regions of Mykolaiv, Dnipro and Kharkov.

The city of Kharkov was hit by the snow storm the worst, with temperatures dropping to minus 3 degrees Celsius at night, with snow piled as high as 10 centimeters in some places in the city.

The heavy wind has downed about 700 trees in Kharkov, causing power outages in 40 apartment buildings and more than 1,000 private homes.

"The snowfall is really heavy. I barely got to work because of huge traffic jams -- all drivers have already changed their winter tires back to summer tires. It is very cold outside -- I had to get winter clothes," Inna Kosenko, a resident of Kharkov, told Xinhua by phone.

"The trees in bloom near my house are covered with snow, so we would likely lose this year's harvest of peaches," she added.

The local meteorological station said the cold weather and the snowfall will likely last until the weekend. Endi