The coal industry in Ukraine has hardly developed in recent years, and under the current policy the country could lose the huge potential of coal in just a few years, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko has said.

"Only Donetsk region alone produced about 100 million tonnes. To appreciate the difference, it's only necessary to know that today the coal industry in Ukraine produces 80 million tonnes of rock per year. So it's not even coal, but rock," the party's press service quoted Symonenko as saying on Friday.

Such a situation, in his opinion, was triggered by the start of the privatization of coalmines in Ukraine.

Symonenko said that only 10-15 mines in Ukraine are currently profitable, and that the rest are unpromising in terms of industry. He said that it meant that the last profitable mines would be sold for almost nothing.

"Ukraine has a huge potential of coal, which could be enough for the next hundred years, but if nothing changes and the state of the coal industry remains unchanged, we risk losing one of the most important natural resources of Ukraine," he said.