Ukraine will retain the ban on the export of gas and energy coal for the time being in order to ensure national interests, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko said.

"Not yet. This is a very difficult question. Of course, business is interested in exporting. But in retrospect, we can say for sure: if it were not banned, then, given the price situation in European markets, all the gas of private owners would be in Europe," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

At the same time, the minister noted that, in his opinion, the decision to ban the export of gas and energy coal, taken under martial law in 2022, ensured the security of energy supplies on the domestic market.

According to the minister, the peculiarity of the completed heating season was, in particular, that Ukraine passed it absolutely without coal imports. According to the data voiced by the minister, before the heating season, it had more than 2 million tonnes of coal, at the end of the heating season there were about 1.2 million tonnes, now the volume of coal is about 1.5 million tonnes.

As for gas, the official said its sufficient reserves made it possible for the coal blocks of thermal power plants to operate on this fuel, the main design fuel of which is anthracite, in conditions of capacity shortage due to shelling of the energy system by Russian invaders.