Ukrainian government says it plans to start buying coal from the South African Republic and Kazakhstan again, to live through the next heating season.
“This is possible, and today we have certain agreements on coal import from SAR and Ekibastuz. We don’t want to do this though, as we have coal on our territory”, vice-prime minister Valery Voschevsky said.
According to him, Ukraine needs 13.5 million tons of coal till the end of the year, including 8 million tons of light coal and 5.5 million tons of anthracite coal. So far Ukraine has around 1.2 million tons, but has to get 1.5 million.
Because of the war in Donbass the coal mining there has almost stopped. Moreover, due to the transport blockade Ukraine cannot take coal from the warehouses on the Russia-supported terrorist territories. (Ukrainian Metal)