KIEV, November 10 /TASS/. Kiev is not negotiating coal purchases from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Yuri Prodan, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Mining Industry, said in a live interview aired by TV 112 Ukraine.

Prodan said that his Ministry was not holding any negotiations with the militias or the self-proclaimed republics.

Some time ago, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Mining Industry Yuri Zyukov said that Kiev was negotiating the purchase of coal produced at mines in the militia-held territories of the Donbas region.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics have confirmed in their jointly made statement that they are ready to conduct a dialogue with official Kiev and restore ties with other Ukrainian regions, including coal supplies.

The DPR and LPR are ready to supply coal to Ukrainian regions for the winter period, their leaders said in the joint statement.

The authorities of the DPR and LPR also stressed the need to cooperate in electric energy supplies, agricultural products, transport, communications and export-oriented productions.