One Week On, Crimean Blackout Continues
A drive around Simferopol on the evening of November 29 shows the Crimean capital still swathed in darkness, after electricity supplies from Ukraine were disrupted. (RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service)
Ukraine signed contracts with South Africa for delivery of 170,000 tons of coal between January-February 2016, said Ukraine’s Minister for Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
According to him, Ukraine has already made a partial prepayment.
The coal is expected to be delivered from South Africa on two ships at the end of January 2016, the minister added.
President Petro Poroshenko says Donbas is at risk of an environmental disaster.
"Russia-backed terrorists flooded many mines in this area," he said at the UN Climate Conference in Paris today. "Their criminal actions led to poisoning drinking water, soils, flora and fauna of the region. Donbas became a shooting range for Russian and pro-Russian troops. As a result, the ground and atmosphere are heavily polluted with exploded ammo as well as with leakage from shelled chemical and other sensitive industrial plants."
According to Poroshenko, environmental issues in the framework of the ongoing conflict may no longer remain without an adequate response from the international community.