Cold weather gripping Ukraine since late last week has killed more than 200 persons with no end in sight, press reports said Thursday. Fifty-four Ukrainians, mostly homeless or pensioners in unheated housing, died on Wednesday, officials at the Ministry of Emergency Situations said. The total death count nationwide through Thursday is expected to be "well in excess of 200," Fakty newspaper reported. Hardest hit were residents of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and the southern Crimean peninsula, where Wednesday temperatures of 29 degrees Centigrade below freezing were just short of a 100-year January low set in 1940, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa). Public health institutions across the country had registered 838 persons for frostbite injuries as of Wednesday evening. --SP 23 30 Local Time 20 30 GMT
