Another 3,000 people have been treated in hospital as temperatures plunged to minus 25^oC, the ministry said in a statement.

The majority of those who died were homeless and intoxicated people, the ministry said.

The toll came one day after Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov threatened to turn off gas supplies to industry and temporarily halt industrial production in an effort to limit consumption.

At the same time, Russia mounted pressure on Ukraine to stop siphoning gas intended for a freezing Europe.

The Ukrainian PM said such a move, which could cripple Ukraine's already fragile economy, might be necessary to ensure that residential and other consumers are fully supplied if the cold continues.

Meanwhile in Georgia, strong winds and heavy snows have downed power lines in the western part of the country, cutting power to millions of Georgians already suffering a heating outage due to a natural gas shortage.

Snow was falling in the capital, Tbilisi, as residents stood in long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters. With temperature hovering just below freezing in Tbilisi - and markedly colder in mountainous regions - Georgia is suffering through its worst energy crisis in years.

CNN