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Kiev buys coal from self-proclaimed republics and South Africa, not Russia — minister

The minister noted that there are contacts with Russian enterprises

KIEV, October 12. /TASS/. Ukraine is currently importing coal from the enterprises of unrecognized Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR), as well as South Africa, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Mining Industry Volodymyr Demchishin said Monday.

"We have contracts with Russia, with the ATO [anti-terrorist operation] zone, South Africa. At the moment we import coal from the enterprises that are registered in the Ukrainian territory, that are paid in the framework of the Ukrainian banking system, but that produce coal on independent territory. It's true. Not from Russia - we are in contact, but do not import [coal - TASS]," the Minister said.

On October 7 Demchishin told journalists about the agreement on coal supplies from Russia. "Currently nothing was delivered from Russia additionally, except for 30,000 tonnes in August, although we have an agreement that the coal will be delivered from both Russia and South Africa," he said.

According to him, Ukraine is currently does not suffer from coal shortage, including the coal from Ukraine. "Every day we additionally supply 20,000 - 30,000 tonnes. We needed funds to improve the logistics. The process started long ago, but something was always in the way," the Minister added.

As of September 30, coal stocks in the Ukrainian thermal power plants warehouses amounted to 1.902 mln tonnes. The Ministry of Energy has previously noted that Ukraine needed 3.2 mln tonnes of coal, including 1.4 mln tonnes of anthracite, for the winter.