KIEV, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine purchased about 369 million U.S. dollars worth of nuclear fuel from Russia in 2017, down 4.6 percent year-on-year, local media reported Wednesday.

Ukraine reduced its nuclear fuel imports by 2.8 percent in total to about 533.4 million U.S. dollars, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency said, citing the data from the State Statistics Service.

Apart from Russia, Ukraine imported about 164.4 million U.S. dollars worth of nuclear fuel from the European branch of the U.S.-based nuclear power company Westinghouse Electric Company.

With the result, Russia accounted for 69.17 percent of Ukraine's total nuclear imports, while Westinghouse accounted for 30.83 percent.

The Ukrainian Energy and Coal Ministry has set a target to reduce the share of imports from Russia to 45 percent this year.

Ukraine, which relied on Russia for more than 90 percent of its nuclear fuel imports in 2013, has gradually reduced the purchase since the political dispute between Kiev and Moscow in 2014.

As nuclear energy accounts for over half of power generation in the country, Ukraine heavily depends on nuclear fuel for its four nuclear power plants.