Krystyna began working hundreds of metres underground in a coal mine in eastern Ukraine because the company lacked male workers.
After more than 1,000 male workers were drafted into the army, a coal mining company in Dnipropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine, faced a shortage of manpower, forcing it to allow women to work underground for the first time in its history. More than 100 took the jobs.
"I took the job because there was a conflict and there was no other job," said Krystyna, 22.
Krystyna stands hundreds of meters deep in a mine in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on November 17. Photo: Reuters
She has been working as a technician 470 meters underground for the past 4 months. Krystyna operates a small electric train that carries workers more than 4 kilometers from the elevator area underground to the coal seam.
The mine resembles a vast tower with elevators that run more than 600 metres underground. Krystyna decided to take the job after overcoming her fear of leaving her four-year-old son, Denys, at home with his grandmother. Her home in Pavlohrad is 100 kilometres from the front line but is regularly hit by Russian missiles.
Krystyna said the work was interesting but hard, heavy and the steam was unpleasant. However, she received a good salary and felt obliged to stay and work for those who had gone to war.
Her brother used to work in the mines. He enlisted two weeks after Russia launched its campaign in February 2022, and Krystyna was worried. "All the Ukrainian men went to the front. Now we need to support them, there is no one left to work in the mines," she said.
Ukraine’s coal industry was once one of Europe’s largest, but has been in decline for decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine have controlled much of the country’s coal-rich regions since 2014. Now Russia controls even more.
Before the conflict, some women worked in the mines, but the government had banned underground work because it was considered too strenuous, a policy that had been in place since the Soviet era. The ban was lifted during the war, and around 400 women now work underground in DTEK’s mines, making up 2.5 percent of the underground workforce.
Natalia, 43, connects the power source to a ship's battery charger in a mine in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, November 17. Photo: Reuters
According to the company, women only do support work that does not require strenuous manual labor. "We work at the same intensity as men, unless the load is too heavy to lift," said Natalia, 43, a train operator.
"I actually tried to persuade my son not to go there to work," she recalled, adding that she has now changed her mind and finds the mines enjoyable. She plans to stay after the conflict ends.
Hong Hanh (According to Reuters )
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