One of the ventilation shafts of the Ukrainian company Metinvest's coal mine in the area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk Region was blown up to prevent troops from the aggressor country russia from using the underground tunnels.
The American publication The New York Times wrote about this with reference to several mine workers.
The publication's interlocutors said that after the start of the full-scale invasion, the mine became a "lifeline" for residents of the area. The enterprise continued to operate, and in 2023, coal production was brought closer to pre-war levels.
According to the workers, in 2023, about 4,500 people worked at the mine. Most of them are local residents who have spent their entire lives in these places.
The continued operation of the mine led to the fact that in 2023 many residents returned to Pokrovsk and the surrounding settlements. They hoped that the russian troops would not be able to approach the city, and the course of hostilities would change in favor of Ukraine.
However, by the end of the summer of 2024, units of the russian army managed to reach the outskirts of Pokrovsk. The approach of the occupiers led to constant shelling. In September, four women working at the enterprise were killed due to russian strikes.
In December 2024, the miners were no longer able to use ventilation shaft No. 3, located in the village of Pishchane, to descend into the mine. They had to go underground in another place and get to the place of work underground. They returned back on conveyor belts along with the newly mined coal.
By the middle of the month, it became clear that the russians were managing to push through the defenses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and would soon occupy Pishchane. The military feared that the occupiers would be able to use the ventilation shaft to go underground in order to use a network of tunnels to get behind the Ukrainian military.
As several workers told the publication, drilling of holes began then, in which explosives were then placed. It was blown up in late December.
An unnamed representative of Metinvest said on condition of anonymity that similar work had been carried out on two other shafts of the mine in the village of Vdale and the village of Kotlyne. It is not known whether they were put into operation or not yet.
Screenshot of the DeepState interactive map.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on January 13, Reuters wrote, citing sources, that Metinvest had stopped coal mining at the mine in the area of Pokrovsk.
And on January 14, the company published a message confirming the suspension of the Pokrovsk Coal Group. Employees of the enterprises and their families were evacuated.
Recall, in mid-December 2024, it became known that Metinvest had stopped the operation of the coal mining site in the area of the village of Pishchane. This is ventilation shaft No. 3.
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