Snowboarders Enjoy Heavy Snowfall In Ukraine's Capital

Kiev, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Feb, 2021 ) :Snowboarding fans in Ukraine's capital Kiev are taking advantage of the heavy snowfalls that have transformed a city street into an urban piste.

At Andriyivsky Descent, a landmark downhill street in the historic centre of Kiev, young snowboarders glide past old buildings and fashionable restaurants.

Sculptor Alika Malonog said she took her two children for a ride on Thursday, as all the kindergartens and schools in the city were closed because of the extreme weather.

"My little girl stayed at home. I cannot go to the atelier to work, but I can go with them to ride on the slide," 37-year-old Malonog, sporting a blue snowsuit and red goggles, told AFP.

The ex-Soviet country has not experienced such heavy snowfall since February 2013, according to Vladyslav Bilyk of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.

"We forgot what it's like when it snows in the winter," he told AFP, adding that the last winter in Ukraine was "abnormally warm" and broke all temperature records.

Bilyk said climate change and global warming have had an impact on the change in weather patterns.

Malonog recalled that when she was a child she would go cross-country skiing every day and ice-skated across the frozen river.

"Now we can't go skating because the ice is very fragile and it's not cold enough to freeze." City mayor Vitali Klitschko said Friday that 450 snowploughs and some 500 workers were deployed to deal with the snowstorm.

Klitschko said at least 1,700 tonnes of snow were removed from the capital on Thursday night alone.

Traffic in Kiev was paralysed and the city authorities urged residents to stay at home or switch to public transport.

The heavy snowfall has also left more than 80 cities and villages in Ukraine without electricity.