APC’s deployed on Kyiv streets, emergency as record snowfall turns Ukraine …
A state of emergency has been declared in Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday as the city is paralyzed by heavy snowfall and blizzard totally abnormal for March.
“Due to the deterioration of weather conditions [heavy
snowfall, blizzards, snow-banks] a state of emergency is declared
in the capital,” the statement by the Kyiv State Administration
said.
The situation in the city is so dire that Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovich has signed a special decree urging all government
agencies to provide maximum assistance to victims of the
snowstorm.
The military is also involved in rescuing the city from its
snowbound condition as 550 servicemen are deployed to the capital
to aid the community services.
Besides 253 snow-cleaning vehicles, 13 armored fighting vehicles
are being used to tow stranded cars, with 270 trucks, 540 cars, 83
buses and 15 trolleybuses already removed from snow banks.
The government has created a crisis center to tackle the
snowfalls, which is being personally overseen by Ukrainian Prime
Minister Nikolay Azarov.
“In these difficult conditions, the government calls on
everybody to show orderliness, self-restraint, cooperativeness,
humanity and, if possible, to join the clean-up efforts in the
aftermath of the bad weather, to help each other in tough
situations,” the government’s statement said.
In just one day Kyiv saw over 50 millimeters of snowfall – while
the entire monthly norm is 47 millimeters.
Community services are ordered to work around the clock, with
priority given to cleaning the approaches to the Metro stations and
subway stairs, as well entrances to hospitals and grocery
stores.
Dozens of flights in Kyiv’s biggest airport, Boryspil, are
delayed or cancelled, with the city’s second aerial port, Zhuliany,
halting operations altogether.
Meanwhile, bloggers report that some of the city’s residents
managed to find joy in the tempest as some daredevils was seen
snowboarding in the streets.
The weather conditions remain difficult in other parts of
Ukraine as well, which led to electricity shortages in almost 400
settlements in the Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Poltava Regions.
The highway services are fighting with snow 24/7 in the north of
the country, while the southern regions are suffering from heavy
rains.
The snow front is moving eastward and is expected to hit Moscow on
Saturday evening or Sunday, lasting until almost the end of March.
A gale warning is announced in Russia’s capital and the Moscow
Region.
The synoptic service say that the current March may become the
coldest in Moscow in the last 33 years as they forecast
temperatures of around minus 9 or 10 degrees Celsius, which is
around nine degrees below average.
Heavy snowfalls are already in full swing in Russia’s Tula and
Lipetsk Regions, with snow-clearing vehicles taking to the streets,
while the city of Kursk, the administrative center of Kursk Region,
which borders Ukraine, was forced to declare the state of
emergency, like Kyiv.
Subzero temperatures and snow mixed with rain are causing problems
to residents of continental Europe and the British Isles as well,
where the current March became the coldest in 50 years.
Russia’s national football team was to play a 2014 World Cup
qualifier against Northern Ireland in Belfast on Friday. The match
was initially rescheduled to Saturday, but subsequently canceled,
with stadium employees failing to remove the ice crust from the
pitch.
