SHCHERBYNIVKA, Ukraine – In the harsh cold, less than a dozen Ukrainian veterans of Russia’s ongoing war huddle around a fire near the remote train station of Kryvy Torets, an hour’s drive from Ukraine’s frontlines and 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
Late on Feb. 11, the Ukrainian nationalists stopped and are now detaining, a 50-wagon train carrying nearly 5,000 tons of anthracite coal from Russian-controlled territory into Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The former volunteer fighters say they will not leave until all trade ceases between government-controlled Ukraine and separatist-controlled areas. Since Jan. 25, the activists have blockaded three out of the seven railway lines that carry coal to and from the occupied territories.
“We have two enemies: Internal and external,” said Leonid Lytvynenko of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists volunteer battalion from Luhansk Oblast, speaking about the Ukrainian authorities and Russia.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on Feb. 15 declared a state of emergency in the energy sector because of the blockade, which it describes as a “dangerous act of populist PR.” According to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, if the blockade goes on for several weeks, large swathes of the country will be left without power.
Seven out of 14 of Ukraine’s power plants rely on anthracite coal, which is only mined in territories that are not under government control – mostly by billionaire oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy company. Imports from abroad are expensive and slow, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy has said, and redeveloping power plants to use other types of coal takes time. So far, two of the seven are undergoing reconstruction.
The activists say Ukraine’s authorities are spreading false information about the anthracite stores at power stations because they and others are profiting from the war-time trade.
“Business is being done on the blood” of men, said Lytvynenko, as he perched on a bed in one of the two army tents pitched near the railway crossing.
Lytvynenko traveled with Samopomich Party deputy Yehor Sobeliev and Donbas battalion commander and Samopomich deputy Semen Semenchenko, who are supporting the activists, on Feb. 13 to visit the Slovyansk power station. The station’s management said their anthracite stocks would last until March 28. A similar statement was made by the management of the Kramatorsk power station, according to the activists.
The level of stocks at the other five power plants is unknown. Semenchenko, who initiated the blockade, told the Kyiv Post that coal stocks are always bought in advance for the winter seasons, and not to do so would indicate that the government was incompetent.
Stabilizing force
Akhmetov’s DTEK has sold electricity generated using from its anthracite coal in increasing amounts since the downturn of its operations at the beginning of the war. Around 8 million tons of coal were transported by DTEK from the separatist territories in 2016, compared to 4.7 tons in 2015, according to Yuriy Cherednychenko, the general director of DTEK’s Dobropillya mines, located in Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk Oblast.
In accordance with Ukrainian legislation introduced in January 2015, DTEK re-registered its enterprises in Ukraine, including two of its mines to Dobropillya. Cherednychenko told the Kyiv Post that Dobropillya receives 70 percent of the taxes paid by DTEK for its operations in the separatist territories and the rest goes to the state.
The Ukrainian authorities and Ukraine’s Independent Miners Trade Union say that the company is a stabilizing force in the occupied territories: “If these miners were left without pay, they will take up arms against Ukraine then there will be blood,” said Ihor Nasalyk, Ukraine’s energy minister, on Feb. 10.
Veterans of Ukraine’s ongoing war patrol near the coal train they blockaded traveling from the occupied territories at Krivoy Torets station on Feb. 14. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
“We mustn’t forget that the people living on those territories are also Ukrainians,” the leader of the Independent Trade Union Mykhailo Volynets said on RFE/RL on Feb. 7. “They need work to survive.”
It is unclear what agreement DTEK and other smaller coal companies have with Ukraine and with the pseudo-authorities in the parts of Ukraine not under the control of the government.
The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, monitors the companies that export from areas that are not under government control. The SBU stated on Dec. 2 that in the occupied parts of Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian-registered companies pay a 47 percent tax on the coal they mine. The statement was made as part of the SBU’s pre-trial investigation into the illegal military groups occupying eastern Ukraine. The SBU said that the money is used to pay the salaries of Russian-backed forces.
According to the activists, the security services have not attempted to end their blockade of the uncontrolled territories because the authorities are afraid there might be bloodshed if they do.
Costly formula
The blockade has also drawn national attention for the first time to the so-called Rotterdam plus formula that Ukraine’s energy regulator has used to buy coal since March.
The regulator said that the formula was introduced to achieve energy independence from the territories that are not under government control, and to introduce greater transparency.
But energy analysts such as Andriy Gerus say the opposite is true. With this formula, all consumers pay for the cost of coal to be transported from Rotterdam in their tariffs, and as well as for the price of the coal, which stands at Hr 1,700-2,300 per ton. But in fact, coal is not being imported from Rotterdam – they are buying Ukrainian coal for Hr 600-1,300. The formula therefore almost doubles the price of electricity for consumers unnecessarily.
Prisoners of war
Fifty meters from the veteran’s encampment, the blockaded train stands surrounded by snow. The train’s drivers, local employees of Ukraine’s state railway company, have been guarding the train in shifts. They sit together with the balaclaved activists in furnace-heated driver compartment.
A veteran of Ukraine’s ongoing war stands on duty onboard the blockaded train on Feb. 14. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Setting off into the unknown, without bulletproof vests, the drivers say they often narrowly escape shelling. Sometimes they are forced to stop the train for days to wait for the fighting to pass, and are left to survive on whatever food they bring from home. The hardship compensation of $40 per month promised to them by Ukrzaliznytsia has not been paid.
When asked why the blockade started in January, after almost three years of war, the veterans were unsure, but said that it was because they were busy fighting.
Semenchenko told the Kyiv Post that the blockade would force the separatists to free Ukrainian prisoners of war without sacrificing Ukraine’s independence. He said this conclusion had been reached by a number of fighters who had finished their service in December 2016 and saw that certain forces were suing for peace.
Between 20 and 22 trains per day roll back and forth from the territories not controlled by the government through Kryvy Torets: “The coal comprises 15 to 20 percent of the goods being traded. The television channels are only talking about the coal, and manipulating people’s understanding of the situation,” said Semenchenko.
Political reaction
Poroshenko has come out against the blockades, calling the move “a destabilizing factor.”
But Ukraine analyst Timothy Ash said that Poroshenko “faces a big dilemma on this issue. He needs to handle this very carefully, given that a lot of those running the blockades are war veterans, and there is clearly some parliamentary support.”
