Seven people had died since Wednesday in the Lugansk region near eastern Ukraine's border with Russia, Volodymyr Gladchenko, an official at the emergency situations ministry, told AFP. Most died of hypothermia after drinking alcohol, he said.

Temperatures in the east of the country dipped to minus 30 C (minus 22 F).

Meanwhile, in the capital Kiev seven people were hospitalized with frostbite during the past 24 hours, where daytime temperatures Friday stood around minus 25 C (minus 13 F), the health ministry said in a statement.

Some schools in the capital sent pupils home because of the cold.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, the cold, accompanied by heavy snowfall and gusting winds, closed schools and the airport.

In Lugansk and the other eastern region of Donetsk, the government banned miners from descending into 19 pits where the plunging temperatures had created hazardous conditions, the Interfax news agency reported.

The weather conditions strained the national grid, with breakdowns reported in 671 towns, the fuel and energy ministry said in a statement.

The cold is expected to last into next week, with temperatures due to remain around minus 30 C (minus 22 F) in some parts of the country.

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