Ukraine may face a coal shortage due to the closure of mines in the east of the country

Ukraine may soon face serious problems due to a shortage of coal.

This was reported by Servant of the People party member Yuriy Kamelchuk in an interview with the YouTube channel Superposition.

He noted that many coal mines in the east of the country have been closed or lost because of the war.

“We may face serious problems with coal in the near future. First, the Pokrovsk mine may soon stop operations. Second, many mines in the east have closed or been destroyed. Fighting has taken place — or is still ongoing — near them or on their territories,” said the MP.

According to him, seven mines continue to operate in western Ukraine, some with reserves that could last for decades, but “state policy in the coal sector remains ineffective,” and money is being “siphoned off” from the enterprises.

“We still have seven mines operating in the Chervonohrad–Sheptytsky and Novovolynsk regions. Some of them are quite promising. A few could run for another 5–10 years, and some have reserves for 50 years or more. But government policy toward the mines has been ineffective for several years now. Either oversight has been poor, or certain ‘watchers’ have appeared, siphoning off money through fake purchases, bogus repairs, outright coal theft, and kickbacks,” Kamelchuk said.

He added that some mines had been purchased by the DTEK company, but not all of them are operating efficiently.

Meanwhile, according to experts, Ukraine has sufficient reserves of gas, coal, and petroleum products, though shelling could cause heating problems in certain cities across the country.