Coal miners power Ukraine at war

In the bowels of the earth in the southeast of Ukrainethe miners work 24 hours a day to extract the coal that the country needs to wage war and provide electricity and heating to the inhabitants.

Coal is essential for Ukraine’s energy needs after the offensive russian six months to destroy power plants and other infrastructure workssaid the chief engineer of a mining company in the Dnipropetrovsk province.

Elevators take miners deep into the mine, where they operate the heavy machinery that extracts the coal and brings it to the surface. It’s hard work, but necessary to keep the country going, the miners say.

“Today, the country’s energy independence is more than a priority,” explains Oleksandr, the chief engineer, who, like all those interviewed, spoke on condition of not giving his last name for security reasons.

Russian attacks on nuclear, thermal and other plants continue to disrupt electricity supplies as the war continues for a second year.

Negotiations to demilitarize the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which Kremlin forces seized last year at the start of the invasion, are at a standstill. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposes any proposal to legitimize Russian control of the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

working fully, the plant produces 6,000 megawatts of electricity. Ukrainian operators shut down the last reactor in September because, they said, it was too risky to keep it running while Russia bombed nearby.

The shelling has damaged the plant multiple times and raised fears of a core meltdown. Russian missiles have threatened the electrical cables needed to operate vital cooling equipment at Zaporizhia and other nuclear plants.

Before the war, the Ukrainian government planned to reduce reliance on coal-fired power plants, which contribute to global warming, and increase production of nuclear power and natural gas. But when Russian attacks damaged thermal plants in the dead of winter, it was coal that kept homes warm, Oleksandr adds.

The work of the miners cannot fully make up for the loss of power from nuclear plants, but each megawatt they generate closes the gap.