KIEV, Jan. 28 – Rinat Akhmetov's DTEK energy holding is stirring up coalminer protests in western Ukraine, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyhsyn told reporters in Kiev on Wednesday.

"First this is happening in the western region – Lviv and Volyn where we take coal and supply it to Zakhidenergo. My dear DTEK: they do not want that we supply this coal to then, and that's why they use any methods to stimulate people to attack me, go to the streets and do not work. Not to produce coal that I could sell to Zakhidenergo," he said.