KIEV, November 2. /TASS/. Ukraine will continue supplies of electricity to the areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions that outside of control of the Kiev government, Vadim Chernysh, the minister for uncontrolled territories and internally displaced persons, told Hromadske Radio (Civil Radio) on Tuesday.
"The government is doomed to swapping electricity for coal from uncontrolled territories," Chernysh said. He added along with it that the situation in the Lugansk region was knotty.
"Technically speaking, the Lugansk thermal power plant, which is located practically on the line of contact (which separates the pro-Kiev armed units and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed unrecognized Lugansk republic - TASS), supplies electricity to the uncontrolled territory," he said. "But coal for it is also brought from uncontrolled areas and that’s why we are doomed to go on with the swaps," he said.
He pointed out some intricate moments of the situation, saying that factories registered in full compliance with Ukrainian laws and paying taxes to the central government, like the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works, were consuming electricity in the uncontrolled areas alongside with the population.
"Many manufacturers on the uncontrolled territories have reregistered and are tax payers here (to Kiev)," Chernysh said. "Also, they export commodities with Ukrainian certificates of origin.".