REUTERS
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has reported that Ukraine saw a 37.5% decline in production of thermal and coking coal to 39.759 million tonnes in 2015 due to ongoing hostilities in the country's east compared to 2014, when Ukraine mined 65 million tonnes of coal.
State mines accounted for 16.95%, or 6.742 million tonnes, of the total coal production, according to the ministry's report posted on the Coal Miners Trade Union's website.
In December, coal production in Ukraine amounted to 3.386 million tonnes, of which 576,400 tonnes was produced by state mines.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2014 Ukraine reduced thermal and coking coal production by 22% year-over-year to 65 million tonnes due to the military conflict in Donbas. Production of thermal coal declined by 29.3% to 44.7 million tonnes.
Ukraine began to experience an acute shortage of coal in the summer of 2014, when, as a result of hostilities, the government had completely lost control of part of Donbas, where the majority of the mines were located.
The shortage of coal affects the operations of power plants whose production capacities have been reduced. In this regard, Ukrainian authorities decided to import anthracite coal from South Africa to ensure the stable operations of the country's power system.