Ukraine needs a strategy for the development of the coal
mining industry, the modernization and restructuring of the Ukrainian mines, therefrom there has been planned the sum worth UAH 1.8 bn in the state budget this year. Prime Minister of Ukraine
Volodymyr Groysman announced during A Question Time for the Government at the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday.
"We must shape our national strategy for the upgrading
and restructuring of Ukrainian mines of the entire coal mining industry. There
has not been such a vision before", said Volodymyr Groysman.
According to the commission of the Prime Minister, at the
next Government session the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine
will present a strategy designed to enhance the development of Ukrainian mines
and solve problems in the coal mining industry that have accumulated for
decades.
"But if we choose the way of directing these funds to
pay arrears of wages to the pitmen working in the shafts where the coal is two
to three times more expensive in production than it costs on the open market,
it is a road to nowhere. It proves necessary to change the working conditions for
the miners, to improve their safety and then we will be able to provide the
possibility of introducing new technologies, to extract high quality coal at
normal cost, while the remaining funds to direct to pay the labour of our
miners", he stressed.
The Prime Minister recalled that the Government had released
the payroll accounts for the miners of Lviv, which
had been blocked by a court decision since 2015. In his opinion, it is
unacceptable when the miners are deprived of the opportunity to receive salaries
for their hazardous work.
"I have a question to the leadership of the SE Lvivuhillya why they afforded blocking of the accounts, I
have questions to the management of other state-owned companies, why they are trying
to block the work of the SE Lvivvuhillya through legal
action. We are now engaged in solving this issue", stressed Volodymyr
Groysman.