The shortage has pushed the usually electricity self-sufficient former Soviet nation to look further afield to Asia to avoid the looming blackouts, according to Bloomberg.

The news comes despite Russia recently beginning the supply of coal and electricity to the country without advanced payment.

President Vladimir Putin announced the move as a gesture of “good will” after fighting, alleged to be supported by the larger neighbour, disrupted coal supplies to thermal power plants across Ukraine.

The coal will be supplied at Russian domestic prices, with Ukraine flagging about 500,000 tonnes to be imported from the country.

Ukraine has about 1.4 million tonnes of coal in reserve stockpiles as of December 1, and need another 1MMt to get through the winter, according to Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn.

“We are incapable of independently supplying our power plants with coal,” Demchyshyn said.

“Money was designated to purchase additional volumes of coal and negotiations were held with all participants, from Australia, South Africa and Kazakhstan, to work on the possibility of shipping coal from far-away countries.”

Coal supplies from domestic sources are only providing 2MMt of coal a month, compared with 5MMt overall before the conflict broke out earlier in the year, with fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk crippling about 70% of Ukraine’s power generating coal mines.

Coal makes up about 40% of Ukraine’s energy mix.

About 320,000t of coal is to come to the country by sea, in addition to the Russian imports, to cover the shortfall.

Ukraine also intends to purchase about 200,000t from the mines in disputed areas.

Coal production plunged for the first 11 months of 2014 by 61% compared to 2013 according to the State Statistics Service website.