World's coldest city left without heating in -44C freeze as Putin funds war

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As Vladimir Putin diverts money to his war, thousands of Russian people have been left with no heating in bone-cracking temperatures of minus 46C.

Fury erupted in the world's coldest city Yakutsk as residents expressed outrage to officials in the New Year.

It is the latest case of power cuts - more frequent than usual - despite excess gas availability because of a block on Kremlin exports to the West.

One local woman said: “Everything is falling apart.

“Putin finds money for war in Ukraine, hypersonic missiles, and his luxury palaces, while ordinary people are left to freeze.”

Another said: “Mothers with babies are crying in despair - this is an extremely hard situation.”

The Satal district of Yakutsk, capital of Russia ’s largest and coldest region in Siberia, suffered eight hours of outage in the minus 46C cold.

More than 1,200 residents of Yakutsk, the world's coldest inhabited city, were left without heating (social media/e2w)

Social media was exploding with demands for help as local officials celebrated the New Year.

Another asked: “Why don’t we have support from the state now?

“They categorically refused [to help].

“Among the victims are a lot of mothers with many children who simply cannot cope on their own.”

One local said: “Pipes are bursting, heating tanks are breaking down, everything is hard frozen.

In Yakutsk, temperatures drop to -44/-45C (social media/e2w)

“The local authorities were not prepared for this situation at all.”

Furious locals asked where the money had gone to repair a broken electricity power station.

One said: “What do they need with this cash?”

Another complained that gas boilers which provide heating had seized up due to the power outage.

“The thermometers at this time dropped to -45 degrees.

It is the latest case of power cuts despite excess gas availability because of Kremlin sanctions (social media/e2w)

“Batteries burst in the apartments of many residents, and sewer pipes froze.”

“This is a man-made disaster,” said former deputy mayor of Yakutsk Vladimir Fedorov.

Temporary generators also froze in the icy temperatures.

The number of casualties has not been reported.

By comparison, the coldest ever temperature in Britain was minus 27.2C in Braemar in 1982 and Altnaharra in 1995.