Ukraine's Illegal Coal Mines Lure Desperate Workers

When Andrey Kandourov started working in an illegal coal mine near the eastern Ukrainian city of Torez on Oct. 1, he wouldn’t let his mother buy him a respirator, because he thought it was too expensive. Two weeks later he was dead. The police told his family he died of a heart attack, even though another worker died in the mine with him at the same time. The family says it never received any compensation from the state social insurance fund.

Kandourov, who was 44, is one of many casualties of Ukraine’s illegal coal business, a nightmarish world where day laborers—some in their teens—toil underground in narrow, crudely dug shafts without proper structural support or ventilation. The miners usually labor without safety equipment, and they have no hope of a pension when they can no longer work or health insurance if they’re injured. They work for as little as 150 hryvnia ($18) a day, below the regional average of 185 hryvnia. Mining and energy experts estimate that hundreds die every year in such unlicensed mines, which produce anywhere from 3 million to 10 million tons of coal, or about 4 percent to 12 percent of the country’s annual total.