Donetsk, Mar 3 – DAN. Complete rupture of economic ties between Ukraine and DPR will have disastrous consequences for Kiev, said DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko.

"We don't need Ukraine neither for survival nor for normal life. They can block whatever they want: roads, railroads, they can mine fields. This is the most they can do. They learnt to jump on Maidan in 2014, so now they should learn to live without power, heating, food, salaries and pensions."

"We are breaking up all ties with Ukraine," said Zakharchenko.

On February 27, DPR and LPR Heads Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitskiy warned Kiev that the Republics would put Ukrainian companies under receivership and halt coal supplies to Ukraine if the transport blockade was not lifted by 1 March. As Kiev failed to meet the requirements the external management was introduced at 43 Ukrainian enterprises.

Among the Ukrainian companies operating in Donbass are such industrial giants as Enakievo Steel Plant and its Makeyebka branch, Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant, Yasinovsky Coking Chemistry Plant, Dokuchaevsk Flux-Dolomite Complex, Concern Stirol, DTEK enterprises, DonetskStal Steel Plant, Komsomolets Donbassa mine, Zasyadko mine, Zuivskaya thermal power station.

Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of Ukrainian choice movement, cited Ukrainian Federation of Metallurgists report showing that Donbass blockade will cut Ukraine's foreign exchange earnings by $2.5 billion. Ukraine's budget will lose 2.5-3 billion hryvnias.

The halt of coal exports from Donbass to Ukraine forced Kiev authorities to declare an emergency in power industry. A number of major enterprises suspended operation.*ot