LUHANSK, October 20. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) announced plans on Monday to establish its own banking system.
“A new banking system will be created. Old bank cards will no longer be valid,” LPR Parliament Speaker Alexey Karyakin said at a meeting with pensioners.
The LPR authorities will use new bank cards, to which pensions will be transferred, he said. The LPR leaders have acknowledged the existence of financial difficulties in the republic that prevent social payments in full.
LPR Prime Minister Gennady Tsipkalov said difficulties with social payments were due to the grave economic situation in the republic. “Enterprises are standing idle and the LPR budget is not replenished so far,” he said.
The LPR said the republic needed two to three years to bring life back to normal.
The LPR authorities made a decision on Monday to issue social cards for the least protected groups of the population. They will be entitled to free medical services, lower public transport fares and foodstuff purchases at reduced prices.
Fuel shortages in the LPR
The LPR authorities have agreed to deliver coal to a thermal power station in the town of Schastye, which is under army control of the Ukrainian army, the republic’s head Igor Plotnitsky said on Monday.
He added he had received a letter from Gennady Moskal, the administration head of the Luhansk region, who wrote that the station needed coal to resume operation. “The letter contains a request to deliver coal to the thermal power station in the town of Schastye. We have agreed to supply coal for the operation of at least one of the three power units,” Plotnitsky went on to say.
Andriy Lysenko, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said earlier that the Donbass militias had blocked coal supplies from enterprises (Luhanskugol, Donbassantratsit, Antratsit, Rovenkiantrastit and Sverdlovantratsit) located in the militia-held territory to consumers in the rest of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Vice-Premier Volodymyr Groysman has described the situation with fuel shortages for generation of electric energy as difficult. “The government is doing everything possible to overcome the crisis,” Groysman said.
The thermal power station in the town of Schastye used to supply 98% of electric energy in the territory of the Luhansk region, including the areas that are currently controlled by the Luhansk People’s Republic.