Ukraine may import up to 1.5 gigawatts of Russian electricity, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said.

"We are in the final stages of [negotiations] on imports. It would be approximately 1,500 megawatts," he said in an interview with channel 1+1 on Sunday night.

As reported previously, the Ukrainian unified energy grid has developed a deficit as a result of the hostilities in Donbas, a decline in coal mining and problems in coal deliveries to thermal power plants.

National Power Company Ukrenergo had to begin blackouts due to a gap between the amount of electricity generated and consumption levels.

Seeking to avoid rolling blackouts, the Ukrainian government issued resolution No 1188-r on December 5 to enable the possibility of temporary electricity imports from neighboring countries by Ukrinterenergo.

Ukrinterenergo was allowed to import electricity for a fee no higher than the weighted mean applied tariff from the previous month set by the National Commission on State Regulation of the Energy and Utilities of Ukraine (NKREKU) for thermal power plants. Ukrinterenergo was compelled to use the same tariff in selling the procured electricity to the wholesale supplier, the state company Energorynok.