The unrest and ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine has been seriously impacting coal supplies and thermal power electricity generation in the rest of the country, according to Ukrainian media sources. On December 28, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ordered Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry to halt rolling power blackouts, adding that Ukraine had begun importing 1.4 gigawatts of electricity from Russia. Two days later, energy minister Vladimir Demchishin stated that in January Ukraine planned to import about one million tons of coal from various sources, including Russia, to be directly burned in thermal power plants rather than being warehoused.
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry (Minenergouglia), in 2014 Ukraine imported $1.773 billion in coal, totaling 2.293 million metric tons, of which 1.839 million metric tons was imported from Russia.
Minenergouglia also reported that until 2014 Ukraine annually mined 4-5 million metric tons of coal before fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine. As of January 6, 2014, Ukraine’s total stocks of coal used by thermal power plants and combined power plants equaled 1.3 million metric tons, with daily consumption of 80,000 metric tons. Ukraine was self-sufficient in power generation until the fighting in the east interrupted coal supplies to the thermal power plants, which generated an estimated 40 percent of Ukraine’s electricity.