Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman says the electricity tariffs will soar if the price of energy coal increases to 3 thousand hryvnia per ton, which will happen if the coal supplies from temporarily uncontrolled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions cease.
During a meeting with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip on 13 February, the head of Ukrainian government admitted that although the nation's power industry needs modernisation, it will take time and considerable investment.
"The share of [Donbas] coal will be reduced in the mid-term perspective, but at the moment this coal has no alternative," Groysman said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said the imported coal is almost two times more expensive (3000 against 1730 hryvnia" which would have an "unacceptably" hard impact on energy tariffs Groysman.
The Donbas anthracite is critical to the stability of the power system of Ukraine, he said.
Ukraine annually consumes 24 million tons of coal to generate electricity and heat, including 9 million of anthracite, which is extracted on the territories not controlled by Kyiv. "This is a critical volume, without which today we cannot operate stably," - the prime minister stressed.
He said the energy crisis center under the Cabinet of Minister on Monday is planned to consider the feasibility of the introduction of a state of emergency in the energy sector.
In the meantime, Ukrainian activists continue to block the rail traffic of good supplies to and from the self-proclaimed Donbas republics.