Natural gas reserves in underground storage (UGS) facilities in Ukraine as of the beginning of March amount to 8.5 billion cubic meters, coal reserves in thermal generation warehouses and mines amount to 1 million tonnes, which is 200,000 tonnes higher than the target for this period, Deputy Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said.

"Currently, gas reserves are 8.5 billion cubic meters and they are being renewed, and consumption is already significantly decreasing. Coal is 1 million tonnes, and this is 200,000 tonnes more than planned, which is the first time at the end of the heating season," she told reporters on the sidelines of the forum "Results of the heating season 2023/2024: the economy under fire," organized by the Centre for Economic Recovery which took place in Kyiv on Friday.

The excess of the target for coal reserves, according to her, "occurred both due to production and imports."

"We have already started working to enter the next autumn-winter period not with worse, but with better indicators," Hrynchuk added, recalling that with the gas target at the beginning of the autumn-winter period of 14.7 billion cubic meters, about 16 billion cubic meters were pumped in UGS facilities.