The decision to stop buying coal from the uncontrolled territories of Donbass will lead to the necessity to buy it directly from the actual aggressor – Russia, at the price far exceeding local.
“The needed 9-10 million tons of anthracite is a minus of $0.9-1 billion to the foreign trade. But what is more important is where to get it and how to transport it. If we analyze the current structure of the coal imports, 2 thirds ($906.3 million) is accounted for by Russia. And the question is not only in price and the availability. Ukraine has a major logistics problem – the capacity of ports. We will have to buy more than half of the coal from Russia”, the National Institute of Strategic Research analyst Alexei Poltorakov said.
Earlier dozens of activists blocked coal deliveries from the occupied regions of Donbass. (Ukrainian metal)