Coal stocks at warehouses of thermal power plants (TPPs) in Ukraine as of January 15, 2016 reached 2.7 million tonnes, which is larger than the preliminarily planned volumes, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a meeting at the cabinet of minister on Friday.

"Today we have over 2.7 million tonnes of coal at warehouses… this is more than we planned as of January 1, 2016," he said.

Demchyshyn said that coal supplies from South Africa have been ordered: one vessel is on the way to Ukraine and another one is approaching Ukraine.