KYIV, Oct 3 – Energy and Environmental Protection Minister Oleksiy Orzhel expects that Russian coal supplies will soon be unlocked to the Luhansk thermal power plant (TPP, DTEK Skhidenergo LLC) operating as the isolated "island."

"We are actively working on the possibility of unlocking coal supplies. We understand that even in conditions of very complicated relations with the Russian side, these are our Ukrainian citizens [residents of Luhansk region who consume heat and electricity from the Luhansk TPP]... I hope that the deliveries from the Russian Federation will be unblocked in the near future. There are no other options so far," he said during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada committee on energy and utilities in Kyiv on Wednesday.