Blow up to save: Ukraine took a radical step in Pokrovsk – NYT
16 January 2025 00:28
The largest coking coal mine owned by Metinvest, located near Pokrovsk, had to be shut down and blown up to prevent Russians from reaching the city’s defenders through underground tunnels. The New York Times writes about this with reference to the workers of this mine, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs
Keeping the mine open as long as possible was critical for Metinvest, as the company relies on coking coal to make iron and steel at its plants in western Ukraine. The steel produced is used to make rails for railways, which became the country’s key transportation artery during the war, as well as to manufacture bulletproof vests and helmets for the military.
Earlier, Metinvest started producing protective armor plates for the US Patriot air defense systems that protect Ukrainian skies.
However, by mid-December, as one of the miners, Anton Telegin, says, it became clear that this important front was collapsing. Russian occupation forces came within 1.5 kilometers of the mine’s shaft No. 3.
The entrance to the shaft is located in the village of Pishchane. The situation raised fears that the Russians might seize the mine and use its tunnels to bypass Ukrainian positions.
In cooperation with the military, the miners began drilling holes under the shaft to plant explosives. A few days later, around December 20, the shaft was blown up.
“Everything collapsed, and now it’s solid stone,” Anton Telegin, who worked at the mine for 19 years, told the newspaper.
A Metinvest manager told the newspaper on condition of anonymity that explosives were also planted in two other, more western shafts of the enterprise, located near the villages of Kotlyne and Vdaloye. It is not known whether they have already been detonated.
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Pokrovske mine under fire
In early August, Russian occupation forces came within 8-10 kilometers of Pokrovsk. The mine was subjected to increasingly frequent shelling, and in late September, one of the shellings killed four female employees (due to the mobilization of men, Metinvest had to hire additional women to replace them).
When Russian troops approached Pishchane, the miners stopped traveling to the village and had to walk two hours to reach shaft No. 3 through underground tunnels from the more western entrance to the mine, returning sitting on conveyor belts that delivered coal.
The shelling caused frequent power outages, keeping the miners underground for hours.
In December, only about 1,000 people were working at the mine, but when the substation serving it was destroyed on December 24, production stopped and it became obvious that the mine would have to be closed.
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How the decline in coal production will affect the Ukrainian economy
According to one of the managers, coking coal production, which was 7,000 tons per day in the summer, dropped to 2,000 tons by mid-December. The final blow was a strike on the power substation on Christmas Eve, which shut down the mine and reduced production to zero.
on January 14, Metinvest announced that it had suspended operations at Pokrovske Coal Group due to the changing situation on the frontline, electricity shortages and the deteriorating security situation. The Group is currently assessing the full impact of the suspension of operations at the asset, whose production sites remain in the government-controlled area.
The closure of the mine is now expected to cause a shock to the economy. According to Oleksandr Kalenkov, chairman of the Association of Metallurgists of Ukraine, steel production will more than halve from 7.5 million tons this year to less than 3 million next year. The consequences will affect trade-metal and steel were Ukraine’s second largest exports last year-tax revenues will decline and the army will be deprived of essential materials for armor production.
The closure of the mine not only weakens Ukraine’s industrial potential, but also jeopardizes the army’s supply of critical materials. This is yet another challenge the country has to overcome in the context of the ongoing war.
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Metinvest
“Metinvest is an international mining and metals group of companies with operations in Ukraine, Italy, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom and the United States. The company is engaged in iron ore and coal mining, coke production, steelmaking and manufacture of rolled products, pipes and other steel products. Metinvest Holding LLC manages the group’s assets. It is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Founded on June 6, 2006, Metinvest quickly became a leading producer of iron ore and steel in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. In 2015, the company was ranked 13th in Deloitte’s ranking of the largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2021, Metinvest topped the Forbes ranking of the largest private companies in Ukraine.
The company’s production capacity allows it to smelt up to 15 million tons of steel per year. In 2021, Metinvest became one of the world’s ten largest iron ore producers. The Group’s enterprises are located near major transportation hubs and seaports, which provides additional advantages in supplying products to consumers both in Ukraine and abroad.
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