Crisis as 192 miners left trapped underground after Russian strike | World | News

Russia launched a massive attack on a coal mine in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Sunday, trapping 192 workers underground, according to Ukrainian energy company DTEK. According to the latest information from the National News Agency of Ukraine, all of the workers were successfully rescued and no workers were injured. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, has repeatedly come under Russian attacks; These attacks forced the temporary closure of their facilities and disrupted the heating supply to homes.

As winter approaches, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy network, targeting essential infrastructure and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power. Ukrainians are bracing for a new season of widespread power outages, with President Volodymyr Zelensky warning that the strikes are aimed at creating a nationwide “energy disaster”.

Dnipropetrovsk region, located in the central east of Ukraine, is an important industrial and energy center with the city of Dnipro as its administrative center. The region is rich in natural resources, especially coal, iron and manganese.

The mines in the region are of vital importance in supplying coal to power plants and supporting the country’s economy. Because attacks on critical infrastructures can disrupt both civilian life and military logistics, Russia targets them to disrupt Ukraine’s energy supply, weaken industrial production, and apply psychological pressure.

After Russia’s attack on mines in August, approximately 150 Ukrainian miners were rescued and one worker died.