Even before you leave the road leading out of this small town in Ukraine’s heavily industrialized Donetsk Oblast, the coal dust sparkling on the roadside hints that something untoward is going on behind the trees.
SNIZHNE, Donetsk Oblast – Behind a sign declaring private property, beyond three barking guard dogs, lies an inconspicuous hole in the ground, around one meter in diameter, reinforced by wooden logs and covered by a metal sheet.
A little further on, a teenager uses a cable to hoist a man from another hole along with bathtubs full of coal.
This is one of 115 such illegal mines working in Donetsk region, according to local authorities, where miners descend under the cover of night to risk their lives to haul up coal, tempted by the offer of higher wages.
Oleksiy, a miner in his forties who emerged from the hole with his face smudged black, said he used to work 12-hour shifts at one of Ukraine’s 100-plus legally operating mines, but started work here after payment of his salary was severely delayed for several months.
“I have a family and hungry kids. Now here I have quick money, work eight hours per day and receive my salary every four days,” said Oleksiy, refusing to give his surname as he feared losing his job.
Monthly salaries can reach up to Hr 7,000, compared with an average of Hr 4,250 for a legally operating mine.
Neighborhood watch representative Lidya points to a huge hole in a field in Mayak village made by excavations that she said poses a danger to children.
Working in an illegal coal mine may pay relatively well, but it is extremely dangerous, with no proper equipment, safety precautions or insurance. Unlike deep underground mines, most of the “holes,” as they are commonly known, are close to the surface, making the coal easier to mine.
I have a family and hungry kids. Now here I have quick money, work eight hours per day and receive my salary every four days.
– Oleksiy, a miner.
Donetsk police said they had closed 55 illegal mines in the region just this year, filling them with sand and other materials.
But new ones are constantly opening up and closed ones dug out.
No one can say for sure how many illegal mines are in operation in Ukraine.
Sergiy Dergunov, acting governor of Donetsk Oblast, said 300 such holes were closed in 2010. Mykhailo Volynets, head of the independent trade union for coal miners and an opposition politician, said there are many more.
Ilya almost lost his sight after a methane leak in an illegal mine.
Volynets speculated that the illegal mines in eastern Ukraine could have a cumulative turnover of around Hr 2 billion per year.
The business is profitable. A team of two miners and a winch-man is paid Hr 120 per ton of coal produced, which could be sold for up to Hr 800 per ton.
Volynets and some of the workers said the mines are managed by criminal groups given cover by local politicians and law enforcers, although no one is prepared to name names.
Donetsk police also said state officials are often involved in managing illegal coal production: Out of 89 criminal cases on mining opened by police in 2011, 10 of them involve state officials.
Mine workers are rarely charged, but they face a far graver danger – serious injury or death. Since Ukraine became independent in 1991, 5,800 people have died in legal mines.
The figure for unregulated illegal holes is unknown. According to the Donetsk authorities, four men died in illegal mines in 2010 and 2011. Volynets said that at least 12 people are killed every month, but are often registered as having died from cardiac arrest, rather than methane poisoning.
Others are seriously hurt. Ilya, a 32-year-old from a family of miners in Nova Zhdanovka, suffered from face and eye burns in a methane leak at the illegal mine where he worked. His employer, unusually, is supporting him while he can’t work.
“Others would say, ‘Why the heck do we need you?’” he said.
In his last job, he wasn’t so lucky. He lost a finger while working and was unpaid while he couldn’t work.
Miners hand over safety equipment after their shift at Pavlogradvuhilia, a legal mine run by Ukraine’s largest energy holding DTEK.
Law enforcers are overwhelmed in the fight against illegal mines. In Mayak, around one hour from Donetsk, large open-cast mines used to begin work around 5 p.m. and continue through the night, until they were recently closed by the authorities.
Lidya, a local neighborhood watch representative, said the huge excavated areas pose dangers for local children, who could fall down an unprotected drop of up to 50 meters, and have left nowhere for cows to graze.
The sites of illegal mining are physically there, and that gives the criminals the opportunity to continue their illegal activity any time and with no substantial expenses.
– Oleg Perigok, head of the economic crimes division for the Donetsk Oblast police.
Police and the authorities in Donetsk said they know about Mayak, but said that closing even a one-meter hole is complicated, as it’s not clear who should fund it.
“The sites of illegal mining are physically there, and that gives the criminals the opportunity to continue their illegal activity any time and with no substantial expenses,” said Oleg Perigok, head of the economic crimes division for the Donetsk Oblast police.
Worse, Ukrainian taxpayers are sponsoring this illegal activity through subsidized coal prices, because of the unprofitability of the mining sector as a whole. In 2010, the cost of mining one ton of coal was Hr 807, but the purchase price was Hr 627. The difference is reimbursed to the mines from the country’s budget.
A way out of this stalemate might be legalizing the illegal holes, thus providing some control and better work conditions for their employees.
Privatizing the 120 state-owned mines could also prove to be an effective way to improve their financial performance, resulting in fewer salary delays and fewer employees leaving for illegal mines in search for better pay. There are 146,000 miners registered as working in Donetsk Oblast.
Pavlogradvuhilia mines, owned by Ukraine’s largest energy holding DTEK, a part of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management group, offer miners a salary of almost Hr 8,000 per month, stringent safety conditions and some social benefits, such as cheap holidays.
Every miner uses a piece of equipment that warns of any dangerous concentrations of methane in the air. This apparatus could have protected Ilya, who ended up with burns after a methane leak at an illegal mine.
But those that operate the illegal mines don’t want to spend money on such equipment, as that would dent the sizable profit they have miners dig up from the deadly holes.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be reached at [email protected]
Photos by Alex Furman
