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.