In Ukraine, mobilization is also taking place underground

Since March, the Russian army has been carrying out targeted strikes on thermal and hydroelectric power plants to disrupt the daily lives of residents and the supply of Ukrainian soldiers. The coal that powers these power plants is all the more precious, but the mines are also suffering from the lack of electricity.

Oleg adjusts his helmet lamp to better distinguish the silhouettes in the distance. Black dust sticks to his tattoos, in this mine between Dnipro and Pokrovsk. Just above him, a pipe evacuates the firedamp. “There, we are doing dangerous work, we are moving the armored conveyor and the electrical machines that we use in this head gallery.” Oleg crawls flat on his stomach into the waist. Several kilometers underground, electricity is a precious commodity. “These are two dry transformers, which receive a voltage of 6,000 volts reduced to 660. This goes to the motors of the shearer and the conveyor and the management system”.

Miners work around the clock to supply coal to thermal power plants. Russian strikes have destabilized the power grid, and it’s a race against time to reduce daily outages, Denis explains. “Over there, the guys are fighting on the front lines; here we are fighting for electric power, we are defending our country.”

But the war and the cuts made the miners’ work even more dangerous. By November, 300 remained underground, recalls Anatoly, the chief engineer. “The miners had to walk ten kilometres in the galleries without ventilation. There is oxygen but without air renewal, it is hard to breathe. Then they came out by climbing 180 metres on the ladder.”

The pumps also stopped abruptly. Four more hours of power cuts and the mine was completely flooded, an environmental and social catastrophe narrowly avoided.