Yatsenyuk: The Russians have cut off coal supplies, we have a crazy deficit
Kyiv, October 25 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Raichenko) – Donbass is a subsidized region with a negative balance, but Ukraine is seriously dependent on it economically.
This was Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in an interview with the Kiev weekly newspaper "New time".
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According to him, the mines of Donbass are subsidized from the Ukrainian budget and the pension deficit of the region is covered, where there are more pensioners than workers, but, nevertheless, Yatsenyuk admits, the situation is not as clear as it seems at first glance.
“The population of those territories is about 5 million citizens,” says the Ukrainian prime minister. – What is 5 million people? These are purchasing power, the domestic market and the acquisition of domestic goods. What is Donbass? This, of course, is energy. That is, we are completely dependent on Donetsk and Lugansk for coal. Now the Russians have cut off our coal supply routes, and we have a crazy shortage of it. Because our thermal power plants are designed exclusively for coal grades A, T, G, which are very expensive, which is why no one in the world uses them. But since we mine it, the boilers were made specifically for these brands.”
In addition to energy, Arseniy Yatsenyuk also pointed to the transport aspect of importance to Ukraine.
“Ukrzaliznytsia receives 40% of its income from transportation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions,” he cited relevant statistics.
Yatsenyuk: The Russians have cut off coal supplies, and we have a huge shortage.