About 200 Miners Trapped As Russia Strikes Ukrainian Coal Mine

Last Updated:October 20, 2025, 01:07 IST

The Russian forces have attacked a coal mine operated by Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight

The Russian forces have attacked a coal mine operated by Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, trapping nearly 200 miners underground. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

The Russian forces have attacked a coal mine operated by Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, trapping nearly 200 miners underground, the company said Sunday.

In a statement shared on X, DTEK said: “On the eve of the heating season, the enemy once again struck Ukraine’s energy sector. During the attack, 192 employees were underground. The evacuation of our colleagues to the surface continues."

Kyiv Post quoted the company as stating that the strike marks the fourth Russian attack on its coal facilities in the past two months.

In an attack on August 26, a Russian strike on another DTEK mine killed one worker and injured three people.

According to a report by International Atomic Energy Agency on October 15, “Before the conflict, the ZNPP had access to 10 power lines. In recent years, that was reduced to two, of which one 330 kilovolt (kV) line was lost on 7 May while the sole remaining 750 kV line was disconnected on 23 September. It is by far the ZNPP’s longest complete loss of off-site power during the conflict."

It further stated that this was the tenth time that the power plant faced blackout.

The nuclear plant has been without power from electricity network for past four weeks, which is the longest blackout since the beginning of Ukraine-Russia war, CNN reported.

Following Friday’s attack on Ukraine’s energy grid, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Kremlin is trying to turn Ukrainian territory into “an island of danger and suffering."

While Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of “intentionally" cutting the electricity supply to the nuclear plant to test reconnection with the Russian grid, accused Russia of “intentionally" cutting the electricity supply to the nuclear plant to test reconnection with the Russian grid, CNN reported.

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