The situation in the energy sector of Ukraine has reached the point that there is a deficit of both anthracite and gas coal.

It was announced at a press conference in Kiev by a Ukrainian energy expert Valentin Zemlyansky, who noted that both public and private entities had not been able to accumulate stocks of imported anthracite coal from South Africa and Australia due to the low capacity of Ukrainian ports, that’s why the territories of Donbass uncontrolled by Kiev remain the main supplier of coal.

‘Hence, there remains not so much dependence, but the production chain still exists today. We still have seven thermal power plants located on the territory controlled by Ukraine and working on anthracite. This is half of the Ukrainian stations. We will be forced to buy coal from mines on the uncontrolled territories and insure ourselves by imports,’ the expert said.

‘At the same time, coal producers are closely following the situation and begin to realize that we are starting to very much depend on imports, and therefore the price of anthracite is going up. Today, there have already appeared problems in the Lvov-Volyn coal basin. There has already risen an issue of the need for gas coal, because Lvov-Volyn mines can not cope today with the task of providing the necessary amount of coal of gas groups. We have already come to this,’ added Zemlyansky.