Boats are covered with snow. Photo AFP/Getty Images

(VOVworld) - The cold spell sweeping across Europe has killed nearly 500 people since late January, many of them are in Eastern Europe. Helicopters have to transport food and medicine for ice-covered areas in southern Ukraine where traffic was suspended due to deep snows. Ukraine is the most affected country in the cold spell with 136 people died. The temperature is forecast to drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius this weekend. In Russia, the freezing temperature has killed at least 110 people. In Balkan area, the number of fatalities has been up to 25. 70,000 people have been stuck in remote areas.