Twenty-five people have died from swine flu in Ukraine since the start of the flu season, Tetyana Dykhanovska, the director of the state flu center, told Reuters by phone on Thursday.

She did not say when exactly the season started.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili said the flu outbreak was not yet widespread enough to be considered an epidemic. Armenia also reported a swine flu outbreak this week.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Matthias Williams)