July 4, 2022 - The government of the DPR announced plans to attract Russian business to the coal industry of Donbass

Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Vitaly Khotsenko spoke about plans to attract large Russian business to the coal industry of Donbass. According to him, a similar topic was discussed at a meeting of the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin and first deputy head Administration of the President of Russia Sergei Kiriyenko. This is reported Interfax.

“We see the combined option as a priority, where the state will also have a part of the assets, because we have our own coal-fired power plants. This is, in fact, such a cluster from coal mining to electricity generation. (…) We also have assets where the state’s forces and budgetary sources are simply not enough. There, of course, we are looking at attracting large Russian businesses either to individual mines or to the entire complex,” Khotsenko specified.

According to him, it is planned to involve in the industry only those coal companies that can ensure the growth of coal production and the number of jobs, as well as provide social guarantees to employees.

Khotsenko said that in 2021, a total of 7 million tons of coking and thermal coal were mined in the DPR. This year, the republic does not plan to increase production volumes due to mobilization, but will return to these plans later.

He added that at the meeting with Kiriyenko, the possibility of direct export trade in coal for private mining enterprises of the republic, social guarantees for current and former employees of the mines, as well as their widows, were considered.

Vitaly Khotsenko is a graduate of the fourth stream of the so-called school of governors. Finalist of the competition “Leaders of Russia” 2018-2019. The training program for the personnel management reserve of the civil service, which is popularly called the school of governors, was launched in June 2017 on the basis of the Higher School of Public Administration (GSSU).