After the signing of a contract on the supply of coal to Ukraine from South Africa, approved by Director of state enterprise Ukrinterenergo Volodymyr Zinevych, the state saw a loss of over UAH 846 million, the Prosecutor General's Office has reported.

"According to the materials of the pretrial investigation, today we believe the fact that the head of state enterprise Ukrinterenergo, by signing the illegal contract to buy coal [from South Africa], allowed embezzlement of state funds worth over UAH 846 million has been proved," First Deputy Head of the Chief Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office Sviatoslav Lahaniak said at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for preventing and fighting corruption, held in Kyiv on January 9.

He said that it was established that corruption was observed in the supply of coal from South Africa.

He noted that coal was delivered from South Africa despite an inflated price and the coal being of poor quality.

As reported, Zinevych was detained on December 4, 2014 as a part of an investigation into large scale embezzlement, resulting from the signing of a contract to purchase South African coal. The Kyiv court of appeals released Zinevych from pre-trail detention, however he will be held under house arrest.