Just 200 yards from where Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashed last year in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, commerce is winning over war. Miners working in an illegal, hand-dug pit are extracting coal that’s destined to be sold to loyalists in the west, the Bloomberg reports.
The arrangement has its pitfalls, said Volodymyr Omelchenko, director of energy programmes at the Razumkov center. Sidestepping sanctions to buy from the east risks strengthening the separatists and bolstering their militias at a time when peace talks haven’t resolved how much autonomy the east may get. Embattled regions won’t vote in local elections to be held across Ukraine …read more
Source: Razumkov Centre