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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian schoolchildren were bundled in wool coats to keep warm in their bitterly cold classroom. Bosnians drove hours to snap up electric heaters. And in Serbia, millions woke up to the Eastern Orthodox Christmas under the threat of winter hardship.

Russia's decision to cut gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday hit the Balkans hard as a deep freeze descended on much of the region.

Tens of thousands of households were left without heat because of a pricing dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has left more than a dozen countries with dwindling energy supplies in the coldest months of the year.

"Is this the 21st century? How can someone leave me without heating in minus 10 degrees (Celsius) because of a dispute I have nothing to do with?" asked Snjezana Kordic, 51, who was wrapped in blankets in her home in downtown Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. For Fahrenheit, the temperature was 14 degrees.

For Eastern Orthodox Christians, Christmas fell on Wednesday, and the holiday in predominantly Orthodox Serbia was ushered in with a shud-der of fear about the future.

"We depend on the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, how silly is that?" asked Djordje Gec, 44, a Belgrade architect.

Bulgaria, the EU's poorest member, was among the worst hit. Some 92 percent of its gas supplies come from Russia via Ukraine and, unlike southern neighbors Greece and Turkey, it has no links to alternative gas routes.