Jak inwazja Rosji na pełną skalę przyspieszyła zalewanie kopalń węgla w Donbasie

Russia’s war in east Ukraine has dramatically impacted the areas that utilized to make up the coal mining industry. Since 2014 most of the mines on the territories of Donbas not controlled by Ukraine have been closed down and many of them subsequently began to flood. If the coal region remains in a state of uncontrolled flooding over the next 5 to 12 years, then two-thirds of the territory of Donbas will become uninhabitable for average life.

Despite Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian government remains committed to its pledge to phase out coal after 2035, the erstwhile deputy energy minister, Yaroslav Demchenkov, said in the summertime of 2023. By 2021, Ukraine, as well as the country's largest energy company, DTEK, had already joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), an initiative aimed at a phased transition to carbon-free energetics. In addition, during the COP28 climate summit, German Galushchenko, the energy minister, besides announced plans to make a “de-carbonized mix of Ukraine's energy system” from renewable energy and atomic power.