Ukraine Coal Propped Up By Miners Who Fled Russian Occupation

Mykolaivka, Ukraine, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jun, 2023 ) :Kyiv power stations have been targeted by cruise missiles, the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam has been breached and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is under Russian occupation.

Of the 89 coal mines that were in newly-independent Ukraine at the break-up of the Soviet Union, 71 are in the eastern Donbas region, now partly held by Russian forces.

But the remaining mines -- which power 30 percent of Ukraine's grid -- are working hard, thanks to an influx of new recruits fleeing the Russian-occupied east.

In the build-up to the war, some in Moscow argued Russia had a duty to defend Russian speakers in the Donbas from alleged persecution by Ukrainian nationalists.

But in February last year, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion and tightened its grip on the east of the country, many civilians fled west into Kyiv-held towns.

Meanwhile, mines in Russian-occupied areas or close to the frontline closed and some were flooded as power to their water pumps was cut.

Further inside Ukraine, there was another problem.

"When the full-scale war started a lot of miners from this area enlisted as volunteers," said Oleg Bilousov, chief engineer at a cluster of mines in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Mineworkers who remained had to work double shifts to maintain production.