EASTERN UKRAINE (VG) As the war draws ever closer, workers are chopping coal 500 meters underground. They fear they may be the next target.
Less than 30 minutes ago
–
Russia has bombed hospitals, schools and railway stations.
Those who dig out coal are afraid that they could be the next target for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. For the coal can play a crucial role for the Ukrainians in the coming months.
– We are outside the distance to artillery. But not for missiles. We fear they may hit us to make the people suffer this winter, says mining director Dmytro (45).
The sound of a Ukrainian fighter plane breaks up the conversation.
– From time to time we hear it. This is normal, says Dmytro from his office in the coal mine.
Due to the fear of being attacked, they want the location of the mine to remain secret.
–The war in Ukraine has triggered a global energy crisis, in which the West is trying to phase out its dependence on Russia’s fossil energy sources.
The same applies to Ukraine, which has been dependent on Russian gas. Now the tap between the two neighboring countries is completely turned off again.
Earlier in June, Ukrainian authorities said they would ban the export of coal and gas produced in Ukraine to meet domestic demand.
– Due to the war, this will be the most difficult winter throughout our independence. We do not want to sell our coal and gas abroad, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has said.
Prime Minister Denis Shmygal has stated that coal production in the country has already fallen by a third, and that the country must produce and store coal before winter.
Coal is a supplement to Ukrainian power production, which mainly consists of nuclear power and renewable energy.
–Underground
The lift starts slowly, before accelerating rapidly into the depths. The three-minute lift takes the workers 500 meters underground.
– Come, in there, waves mining director Dmytro, who shows the way to a small, ragged train.
The train runs for fifteen minutes in pitch darkness. It rattles so much that it is impossible to have a conversation.
Eventually, small lights appear at the end of the tunnel, and the miners make themselves known.
Before, Dmytro had 2,000 workers working for him.
Now they have become fewer.
– Either you take a weapon in your hands to protect the country, or you take a shovel and pick up the coal, says Dmytro who says that both are equally important for Ukraine’s survival.
About 300 of his workers have joined the military. Five of them have already been killed and 24 injured.
– They work in dirt and grime underground, for nine hours every day. It is heavy, and that is probably why they are valuable in the military, because the conditions are quite similar, he says.
–– We will beat them
– We have been digging here since Soviet times. The amount of coal here is enormous, says the 33-year-old miner Eugeny.
The shirt, which was once white, has turned gray with coal dust. The mine was built in 1978 when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Many of the miners now believe that Putin again wants control of the countries that were separated in 1991.
– I hoped until the end that this would not happen. I never thought our neighbor could attack us this way. But we will beat them, says Eugeny.
The miners try not to think about the realities of the war that rage over them while they are underground and chopping out coal. It can make them unfocused and have fatal consequences.
– Here it is already dangerous, whether you are above or below ground, says Dmytro.
–Families are divided
55-year-old Zina is sitting in a small bucket. She is responsible for washing in the mine at the secret location in Eastern Ukraine.
After the war broke out, she has had fifteen relatives who have lived at her home. They have left their homes, which are even further east, closer to the front.
– I now sleep on the floor with me, while my children have fled to Poland, she says while her voice breaks.
She can often hear the plane alarm go off, and then the same feelings return to her body, with a wealth of fear and unrest.
– My colleague cries all day because her son is a soldier on the front line. She never knows if he will survive the day.
–Like many others in this part of Ukraine, Zina also has relatives in Russia. She and her niece had a good relationship before the war, but now things have gone awry.
– When I said that Kharkiv was destroyed and that the people here were suffering, she simply replied «that it can not be true that it was not so serious».
Now the niece has stopped answering the phone, says Zina.
– It is not fair that they in Russia do not protest. 20,000 of their own soldiers have been killed, also they are just completely silent. How can that be?