OREANDA-NEWS. At 5:40pm, DTEK has powered Komsomolets Donbassa Mine cut off the electricity after the shelling yesterday. The ventilation and water removal facilities are working at a part of mine tunnels.

Nine engineers of DTEK Donetskoblenergo used the “green corridor” to fix one of the three damaged power lines. The power helped to start ventilation at certain mine tunnels. Four miners from the emergency crew went underground to launch the water removal pumps.

“The mine had no power for 24 hours. We could not pump out the water and ventilate the mine, which is highly explosive. Methane masses up inside the mine and can explode without the ventilation. No dewatering can cause flooding of the mine and its surroundings. The power engineers and miners take every effort to prevent this,” noted Dmitriy Sakharuk, Head of DTEK's Anti-Crisis Centre.

Yesterday around 6pm, the ground facilities of DTEK Komsomolets Donbassa Mine were damaged after the shelling. The fire started, but was shortly put out. The mine was left with no power with seven miners still underground. Later they all successfully went to the surface.

DTEK Komsomolets Donbassa Mine has not mined coal since 1 August due to the hostilities in the Shakhtyorsk district. The facility is one of the biggest in Ukraine and employs 4,800 people producing 4m tonnes of coal annually and accounting for 8% of the total coal output in Ukraine. The lean coal produced at the mine is used at DTEK Krivorozhskaya and DTEK Pridneprovskaya TPPs to generate electric power.