A week of ferociously cold temperatures in Ukraine has now claimed 101 lives, the Ukrainian emergencies ministry said Friday as the prime minister admitted the country was enduring "difficult times".

Substantially raising the previous toll of 63, it said that 11 people had died in hospital as a result of hypothermia sustained in the cold snap, 26 in their homes and 64 in the streets.

Almost 1,600 people have sought medical attention for frostbite and hypothermia since last Friday as temperatures plunged to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) at night.

The ex-Soviet country, which is close in size to France and has beach resorts on its southern Crimean peninsula, has suffered particularly acutely from a cold front that has now moved into western Europe.

Even neighbouring Russia announced a lower death toll from cold on Friday of 64 since January 1, being more accustomed to extreme temperatures than its western neighbour.

The Russian state weather service said Friday temperatures had fallen to minus 51 Celsius (minus 60 Fahrenheit) over the last 24 hours in the coldest town, Oimyakon in the northeastern Sakha republic.

The Ukrainian emergencies ministry said that 2,940 temporary shelters had been set up across Ukraine where people could find warmth and food and another 100 would be opened in the next hours.

It said that 53,000 people had visited the shelters since the cold snap first struck Ukraine on January 27 with 11,000 using the facilities in the last 24 hours alone.

The large tents are heated with stoves and serve the needy hot tea and a few simple dishes.

A Ukrainian health ministry expert on frostbite, Georgy Kozinets, told Kommersant daily he expected most of those killed by cold "had been drunk or were elderly people living alone who could not look after themselves."

Ukrainians stepped up its energy consumption in the last three days to keep warm and the government has been forced to buy extra electricity from neighbouring Russia.

"In the last three days, we have burned a billion cubic metres of gas alone. The country is going through very difficult times," Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Thousands of schoolchildren enjoyed impromptu holidays after around 17,500 schools closed due to the low temperatures.

The cold temperatures were set to continue with minus 25 to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 13 to minus 22 Fahrenheit) forecast at night and minus 16 to 21 in the day, the emergencies ministry said.