DONETSK – Four hundred miles south of Kyiv, the oppressively cloudy sky overwhelms the vast plain. The only things cutting through the horizon are the slag heaps from the region's coal mines.
The coal basin of Donbass has seen better times – before Ukraine became independent in 1991, it was the heart of the Soviet military-industrial complex.
But now, “many state mines have already been closed or privatized.
Everyone is unemployed here,” says Volodia, an ex-miner from the small
town of Zuyevka. “This is why people from all over the region have
started digging up the ground.” That now includes women and children.
Around Donetsk, a major industrial city, coal can be found only 30 feet underground. “There are over fifty kopankas
– illegal mines – in our village alone. Most of them are about four
years old,” says Volodia. “The police doesn’t stop us, because everyone
profits from this system.”
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