Death toll from Ukraine mine blast rises to 13
Published: 27 April 2019, 5:40:05
“Rescuers recovered from under the debris… the bodies of 13 miners,” the news agency of the unrecognised republic said. It added that the fate of another four miners was unknown.
On Friday, Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed republic, called the explosion at the Skhidcarbon mine a “terrible tragedy.”
Russia’s emergency situations ministry sent mine rescuers to the separatist territory after it requested help, it said in a statement.
The Lugansk news agency said the mine was closed in 2014 due to the conflict between Kiev’s forces and the Russia-backed separatists, but was
reopened in 2018.
Most of Ukraine’s coal is produced in its eastern region, where the ongoing fighting has cost some 13,000 lives.
Kiev has tried to boost the operations of other pits under its control in the west of the country.
