by Maxim Tucker
A miner works at the Kalinovskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in the eastern Ukrainian city of Makeevka near Donetsk on Dec. 23, 2014. (AFP)
One of six reactors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant had to be shut down today after an electrical malfunction, adding to Ukraine’s energy difficulties as temperatures plummeted over the weekend. The incident is the second reactor shutdown at the power station in the past month.
Plant operators stressed that the incident was not dangerous and had not led to an increase in radiation, but with the country fast running out of fuel for its conventional power plants, problems with its largest nuclear station will be particularly unwelcome.
The Zaporizhia plant provides more than 22 percent of Ukraine’s electricity supply, already disrupted by the conflict in the country’s east. On Dec. 5 Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn warned that the nation’s power plants had less than one month’s worth of coal left, forcing them to work at reduced capacity.
Coal mines in the self-proclaimed separatist republics in the Donbas typically provide the bulk of the fuel for fossil fuel power plants, but no longer serve the rest of the country.
Instead, Kremlin-backed insurgents are transporting large quantities of coal from Ukraine to Russia, which has now offered to sell the coal back to Kyiv. On a number of occasions OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine have observed “high numbers of dumper trucks transporting coal from the Luhansk region to the Russian Federation.”
The observation was followed shortly afterwards by Moscow’s announcement that it would prove Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "goodwill" towards Ukraine by selling the administration in Kyiv coal without prepayment.
“Against all the odds as President Putin said earlier in the hard times he had never given up the consistent policy towards supporting the Ukrainian people and providing real and not eventual support,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Dec. 27.
“Due to the critical energy situation Putin took a decision on such supplies regardless the absence of prepayment, which is the condition of making them.”
Mines in the Donbas produced 14.4 million tones of coal in 2014, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency, and 680,000 tons between Dec. 1 and 18, roughly double the amount Russia is now offering to sell to Ukraine.
Moscow is willing to sell 500,000 tons of coal to Ukraine per month, according to Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.
"If an additional corresponding agreement may be reached, we're ready to supply another 500,000 tons, totally 1 million tons of coal, to Ukraine in order to help it solve energy problems," he told Rossiya24 TV channel.
Russia’s interest in Ukraine’s energy problems comes after a week in which Ukraine twice shut down energy supplies to Russian occupied Crimea, accusing the peninsula of exceeding its agreed usage limits.
Reuters: 28. December 2014
Russia is selling Ukraine coal it has been taking from Donetsk
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks into a hall before addressing journalists after he met his French counterpart Francois Hollande at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, December 6, 2014.
Russia has agreed on a new deal to supply coal and electricity to Ukraine, which is struggling with a lack of raw fuel for power plants due to a separatist conflict in the industrial east, Russian officials said on Saturday.
The move comes a day after Kiev said it would suspend train and bus services to Crimea, effectively creating a transportation blockade to and from the region annexed by Moscow in March this year. Kiev has briefly cut off electricity to Crimea before.
Russia will supply coal and electricity to Kiev without advance payment as a goodwill gesture from President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency.
"Putin made a decision to start these supplies due to the critical situation with energy supplies and despite a lack of prepayment," Peskov said.
Russia plans to supply 500,000 tonnes of coal to Ukraine per month, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak told Rossiya 24 television. It is ready to supply another 500,000 tonnes per month if an additional agreement is reached, he added.
Ukraine's coal reserves stand at 1.5 million tonnes compared with normal winter stocks of 4-5 million tonnes, according to energy ministry data.
The country used to be self-sufficient in electricity, but months of fighting a pro-Russian uprising has disrupted coal supplies to thermal power plants, which had generated around 40 percent of its power.
Last week Ukraine's energy minister, Voldymyr Demchyshyn, said he was holding talks with Russia's energy ministry on coal and power supplies. Earlier attempts to import Russian coal have been hampered by supplies being held up at the border.
Supplies will come at Russian domestic prices, Kozak said, adding that he hoped the move would help ensure reliable energy supplies to Crimea.
He did not say whether the transportation hold-ups at the border had been resolved.
Russia will also supply electricity to Ukraine, Kozak said, without giving supply volumes.
Kiev's pro-Western government has accused Russia of orchestrating the rebellion in Ukraine's east, a charge Moscow denies.
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