11.04.2017, DPR.
Pyotr Poroshenko is proposing to confiscate all coal which is mined in the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The president’s representative in the Ukrainian parliament, Irina Lutsenko, announced this as the Ukrainian President’s intention on April 10 during a broadcast of the 112 Ukraine TV channel.
Lutsenko reported: “The president said that the next order of business which he intends to bring before the National Security and Defense Council is the possible confiscation of coal.”
Currently, Ukrainian authorities, with the support of right-wing radicals, are carrying out a blockade of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.
Since January 2017, Donbass has been economically isolated from Ukraine. This isolation forced the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic to reorient their economies toward the Russian market. As a result, Ukraine faces a shortage of Donbass coal needed for its heavy industry and for power generation. Due to the shortage of anthracite coal, four thermal power plants have already been stopped in Ukraine over the past week: Pridneprovskaya, Trypolskaya, Zmievskaya and the one in Krivoy Rog. Ukraine refused to buy coal from Russia to replace the cessation of supplies from the Donbass. Shipping coal from the United States, Australia and South Africa have turned out to be prohibitively expensive for Ukraine. Meanwhile, on April 1st, the Donbass Fuel and Energy Company, DTEK signed a contract with Republic of Moldova, to supply electricity, which Moldova previously received from the Moldovan Hydro Power Plant in Transnistria (Pridnestrovie).
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
* The picture is from pixabay.
