Residents in the world's coldest city have been filmed taking an icy plunge into a local river - as temperatures dropped to -62.7C.
The city of Yakutsk in east Siberia, which is widely considered the world’s coldest city, on January 19 recorded deeply freezing conditions.
It was the coldest recorded in the region in more than two decades.
The whole Asian region has been battling dramatic temperatures, while Afghanistan has had over 140 deaths due to the taxing conditions.
The Satal district of Yakutsk, capital of Russia ’s largest and coldest region in Siberia, have been left without heating in the sub-zero temperatures as Vladimir Putin diverts money to his war efforts.
Yakutsk is the world's largest city built on permafrost and has been nicknamed Russia’s Kingdom of Cold.
A video shared by AFP on Twitter from January 19 showed residents in Yakutsk plunging themselves into the ice cold waters of the Lena River, to mark the Orthodox Epiphany.
The day was observed in Russia on the 19th in remembrance of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.
The occasion was one of the oldest holidays on the Christian calendar and was cause for a large celebration in Russia - which was a predominantly Orthodox country.
Several people were captured in the video as they walked down a small ladder into a man-made plunge pool, rimmed by ice, in large canvas tent.
A shot of a thermostat measuring the temperature of the water appeared to read -49C.
Vasilii Kotenko, who was interviewed by the news agency, had travelled to Yakutsk from Crimea for the experience.
Mr Kotenko said after you took the dip it was "like you were born again".
"What's interesting is that for the rest of the year you don't catch any flu, nothing," he claimed.
Irina Korsakova, a pensioner, said she was “doing the bathing for the 11th time”.
“I did not do it for the last two years because of the pandemic and I was sick myself. The feelings are always wonderful, it’s always a feeling of purity, wonderful sensations, of warmth,” she added.
Earlier this month thousands of residents in Yakutsk were left with no heating in bone-cracking temperatures of -46C.
The Satal district of Yakutsk, capital of Russia ’s largest and coldest region in Siberia, suffered eight hours of outage in the -46C cold.
It was one of the latest cases of power cuts - more frequent than usual - despite excess gas availability because of a block on Kremlin exports to the West.
Social media was exploding with demands for help as local officials celebrated the New Year.
One local said: “Pipes are bursting, heating tanks are breaking down, everything is hard frozen.
“The local authorities were not prepared for this situation at all.”
Despite being a part of Siberia rich in diamond, gold, uranium and other mineral resources, it was recently reported that Putin's war had left locals without heating in the bone-chilling tundra.
Though it's the coldest city in the world, summers shoot up to an average of 24C - making it also the location with the highest seasonal temperature difference.
While the temperatures and situation is depressing, Yakutsk residents are said to make the best of their dificult surroundings.
Reports could lead you to believe Yakutsk is a frozen wasteland where people shiver in dilapidated huts, huddling together for warmth, but in reality it has all the basic infrastructure of any regular city, including supermarkets, hotels, coffee shops and a public transport system.
After the freezing day, many will head out to local bars or nightclubs to load up on beer, reports thetravel.com.
For drinking water, residents head to the river and chop off a block of ice, bring it home and melt it.
As you walk through the town, locals can be seen hanging fruits and meats from their windows because it's more effective than a high-tech freezer.
