About 30,000 people to face job cuts in energy sector in Ukraine

Massive layoffs are anticipated in the energy sector in Ukraine within the coming years, Vladimir Demchishin, Ukraine’s Energy Minister, said in an interview with Focus Magazine.

“We are going to close five out of the thirty-five mines under our management, with seven more mines to be closed temporarily this year. We will have to cut 20% of employees in the field – 10,000 out of the 52,000 miners,” Demchishin said.

Employees at the age of retirement will be fired first. About 50% of the total number of miners will be fired within the coming years. “Generally, we need to leave around 25,000 people on the mines within 2-3 years,” the minister said. The situation is not better in the field of nuclear energy. “Energoatom (National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine) employs 35,000 people, meanwhile, by European standards, the company needs about 15,000 employees, given the current volumes of the generated nuclear power.”

Earlier, Demchishin said coal recovery in Ukraine shrank 22.3% in 2014 as compared to 2013 – to 64,995 million tons. Met coal recovery shrank 32% to 16.139 million tons. Steam coal production fell 18.5% to 48.856 million tons. Coal consumption in Ukraine dropped 16.4% to 31.562 million tons.

The minister said 66 mines that produce anthracite coal are in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic. “Therefore, we are reluctant to buy coal, particularly, from Kazakhstan and Russia,” he said.