KYIV (Reuters) -One miner was killed and three were injured in a Russian attack on a coal mine owned by Ukraine’s largest energy company DTEK near front lines in the eastern Donetsk region, DTEK said on Tuesday.
Russian invasion forces have in recent weeks stepped up their offensive in eastern Ukraine, where most of the country’s coal mines are located.
“The attack damaged the company’s buildings and equipment and caused a power outage. At the time, 146 miners were underground, and efforts to bring them to the surface are ongoing,” DTEK said in a post on Telegram messenger.
It did not specify the location of the targeted mine or say how Russian forces hit it.
Ukraine said this month small groups of Russian infantry had thrust some 10 kilometres (six miles) towards the main defensive line near the eastern town of Dobropillia, raising fears of a wider breakthrough that would further threaten key cities.
Later, Ukrainian officials said Kyiv’s troops had stabilised the battlefield in an area of the east where Russian forces had made a sudden push to pierce Ukrainian defences.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)
