You're reading: Yanukovych: It’s impossible to legalize illegal mines

Legalization could not be the main solution to the problem of the so-called illegal mines, where coal is illegally mined, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

“It’s impossible to legalize illegal mines, because it’s impossible to create at them the proper conditions for labor protection and safety,” he said during the Dialog with the Country live television program on Friday.

He said that this problem appeared in the mid 1990s, when the government led by Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko started the process of restructuring the industry.

Yanukovych said the problem of illegal mines was being gradually resolved, their number has significantly been reduced, but it will be impossible to quickly deal with it.

He said that in the last three years coal production has increased by 15 million tonnes, which helped create new jobs and pull some people out of illegal mines.

Yanukovych also said that the government, so as not to accumulate coal at coal storage facilities, was simultaneously launching plants for the production of synthetic gas.