OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2012. In 2012, coal production in Ukraine will increase to 85 million tons, President Viktor Yanukovych said during a meeting with the administrative leadership and businessmen of Donetsk region.

"We have already increased coal production to about 70 million tons and this year, we will reach the production of about 85 million tons," he said.

Viktor Yanukovych noted that in the last two years, Ukraine has switched to energy saving due to the high price of gas upon which the national cost of production is based on.

"We have switched to a completely new technology of producing electricity at a number of steel mills, replacing gas with coal. Coal is our national energy carrier, and we have to think how to use it fully," he said.