“According to the information I’ve got, it is clear now that there are not enough coal stocks. This is what I warned about three months ago. I demand a plan of immediate measures for us to ensure the stable operation of the country’s power grids,” he said at a meeting of the Anti-Crisis Energy Headquarters in Kyiv on Friday.
“The state has allocated necessary funds [for coal purchases], and now we need to not only use them, there should be coal in stock,” he added.
In his words, Russia’s attempts to block coal shipments to Ukraine were evident way back in summer.
“Russia will be blocking coal supplies, and it was brought to our attention three months ago. Russia’s goal is to completely destabilize the situation in Ukraine,” he said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn announced on Friday that the available stocks of coal in warehouses and thermal power plants in Ukraine were enough for a month of stable work of power facilities.
Yet, in future the issue of supply of coal will require new solutions, he added.
He said that Ukraine would buy 250,000 tonnes of coal from South Africa in December, and overall coal stocks by the end of the year should be at least one million tonnes.
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