REUTERS
In the first quarter of 2018, coal supplies to Rostov region from the occupied accounted equaled almost 50% of those in 2017.
Ukrainian Member of Parliament, coordinator of the Information Resistance analytical group Dmytro Tymchuk says Russia has begun to massively transport coal from the self-proclaimed "Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR/DPR)" in the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine.
"Figures show that coal supplies to [Russia's] Rostov region in the first quarter of this year [Q1 2018] accounted for almost 50% of coal supplies in 2017," he wrote on Facebook June 7.
In particular, while 1,595,625 tonnes of coal worth US$63.140 million ($54.7 per tonne) was transported from the occupied areas to Rostov region in 2017, some 747,103 tonnes of coal worth $25.81 million ($34.54 per tonne) was delivered to Russia in Q1 2018 alone.
Noteworthy, in the first two months of 2018, some 27% of total coal supplies for 2017 (77.5% of those in 2016) was transported from the "LPR/DPR" to Rostov region. Coal shipments to Russia in March alone soared by 46.8% from the total figure for 2017 (by 132% from the figure for 2016).
Read alsoRussian companies halt coal transit via Ukraine – media
Tymchuk added that coal transported from the occupied Donbas to Rostov region in 2016 and 2017 totaled 562,399 tonnes worth $25.251 million ($45 per tonne) and 1,595,625 tonnes worth $63.14 million ($54.7 per tonne), respectively.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said the Russian General Staff had changed the tactics of waging war in Donbas.
"I'd like to emphasize that the tactic of war in Donbas that is being pursued by the Russian General Staff, has changed. The two army corps that are part of the 8th army now function similarly to [the Soviet] penal battalions in World War II," he said.