"He doesn't look like a person, who has this any special relation [with Russia], definitely," Poroshenko told the Fox News broadcaster on Tuesday, answering a question if Trump had any collusion with Moscow.
A number of US media outlets and officials have repeatedly reported about potential links between the electoral campaign of Trump and later the members of his administration and Russian officials, including Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. The officials, such as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also alleged that Moscow made attempt to interfere into the US election to help Trump win.
Moscow has denied the allegations of meddling in the US election and the White House and Trump himself had also reaffirmed that there were no proof for allegations of collusion between the campaign and Moscow during the election.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he discussed with US President Donald Trump bilateral economic cooperation, including the supplies of US coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
On Tuesday, Poroshenko visited Washington and held talks with Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence.
"We speak about the effective cooperation between Ukraine and the United States in economic sphere, to find out the coal from Pennsylvania to Ukrainian power stations, the LNG from Louisiana to Ukrainian gas transportation system," Poroshenko said in an interview with the Fox News broadcaster, commenting on his Tuesday meeting with Trump.
In late January, a group of former participants of Ukraine's military operation in Donbass, including Ukrainian lawmakers, blocked some sections of freight railroad links with areas in Donbass not controlled by Kiev. They claimed that any trade with the self-proclaimed republics was illegal, and all ongoing trade transportation meant smuggling. The blockade has led to a disruption in anthracite coal supplies to Ukraine, which forced the Ukrainian authorities to introduce emergency measures in the energy sector in order to save resources.
In 2016, Russia and the Republic of South Africa were the main suppliers of anthracite coal to Ukraine. Despite the blockade of Donbass, Russia remained the largest anthracite coal supplier to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2017.
Kiev is planning to replace anthracite coal from Donbass with coal imported from South Africa. Some electricity producing companies have already agreed on the import of coal from the country.
On May 19, Ukrainian Energy Minister Igor Nasalik announced plans to extend emergency measures in the energy sector until September in order to accumulate stocks of coal before heating season starts. Emergency measures include determining the permissible level of reducing the reserve of power generating capacities by energy company Ukrenergo, establishing requirements for thermal power plants equipment, rotating blackouts and boosting the share of nuclear power.
