Ukraine mine blast: Day of mourning marks deaths of 33 miners as fighting …
Updated
Ukraine has observed a day of mourning for 33 miners who died in an explosion in a notoriously dangerous mine, just a few kilometres from the frontline where Kyiv is reporting an increase in attacks by pro-Russian separatists.
Rescuers found the bodies of the miners in the Zasyadko mine a day after a blast ripped through the shaft, emergency officials of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said.
All of the bodies had been brought to the surface for identification, while survivors were being treated in hospital for burns and gas poisoning.
The Zasyadko mine is located on the outskirts of Donetsk, not far from the frontline in the nearly year-long conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Throughout the fighting, the mine – one of Ukraine’s biggest – had remained in operation.
The widow of one of the miners, who refused to give her name, accused management of failing to respect security norms.
“They force them to extract without pause to have results and round numbers,” she said.
International monitors reported sporadic shelling around Donetsk airport as recently as Tuesday, nearly three weeks into a UN-backed ceasefire aimed at ending 11 months of violence that has killed over 6,000 people.
The Ukrainian military said that attacks on its positions had killed one soldier since Wednesday, and that a civilian working for the emergency services was killed by shelling in Avdiyivka, a village west of Donetsk.
Regional prosecutors have launched an investigation into the cause of the mine blast, but conceded that the probe was unlikely to proceed given that the area is in separatist hands.
The rebels’ own prosecuting authority said it had launched its own enquiry.
Day of mourning for miners killed in blast
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko declared Thursday a nationwide day of mourning, ordering that the Ukrainian flag be flown at half-mast and cancelling entertainment events.
The parliament observed a minute’s silence at midday.
Both Ukraine and Russia had offered to help with the search for survivors but the separatist authorities claimed they had enough people and equipment.
Access to the mine was closed off by the rebels on Thursday morning and psychologists at the scene were trying to comfort two women convinced their miner husbands had died.
“We are trying to calm them down, we say that perhaps their husbands are still alive even though we don’t believe it,” Oksana, one of the psychologists, said.
Kyiv and rebels both report withdrawing equipment from the front line as per the ceasefire agreement, which is being closely observed by Western countries.
On Thursday Kyiv announced it was starting to pull back the notorious Grad rocket launchers as part of the next stage of the pullback spelt out in the deal struck in Minsk.
At the same time, Kyiv is taking steps to prepare for a future resumption of violence, with the parliament on Thursday approving an increase of the military to 250,000 troops from the current 235,000.
Britain and other Western states are watching the state of the ceasefire for signs of another major flare-up in violence, reserving the possibility to increase sanctions against Russia and even threatening to send military aid to Ukraine.
Kyiv and the West accuses Russia of being the perpetrator of the insurgency, but Moscow denies sending troops across border despite numerous accounts of Russian soldiers.
AFP
Topics:
disasters-and-accidents,
unrest-conflict-and-war,
ukraine,
russian-federation
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