ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Trente-deux mineurs disparus après un coup de grisou près de Donetsk
by M. H
Translated Monday 9 March 2015, by
Late in the afternoon of March 4, 32 miners were reported still missing following an explosion in a coal mine in the Donetsk region in an eastern Ukrainian region under rebel control.
The firedamp explosion killed five, according to a survivor. In 2007, a similar accident occurred in the same mine in Zassiadko, killing 106 miners. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk took advantage of the present war context to accuse the insurgents in the East, whom he described as “Russian terrorists”, of disrupting the arrival of aid sent from Kiev. For their part, the mine authorities insisted on pointing out that the deadly explosion was not at all linked to the past months of combat and shelling. The local authorities explained that there was slim hope of finding survivors.