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25 Dead in Ukraine Mining Accidents

Two separate incidents highlight safety lapses

By the Associated Press

Posted Jul 30, 2011 6:22 AM CDT

(AP) – Rescue workers have found five more bodies at two Ukrainian coal mines where accidents occurred, raising the death toll to 25. Twelve other miners remain missing. The accidents in the eastern region shocked the country and highlighted the dangers of the nation's mining industry. It is believed to be one of the world's most dangerous because of outdated equipment and disregard for safety regulations.

The government said today that yesterday's pre-dawn blast at the Suhodilska-Eastern mine in the Luhansk region killed 18 workers, including one body found today. Investigators suspect the accident was caused by a methane explosion. In the Donetsk region, rescue workers at the site of an elevator collapse found four more bodies today, raising the death toll there to seven.

A rescuer prepares his equipment  at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region, Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011.
A rescuer prepares his equipment at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region, Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011.   (Photomig)
Rescuers rest during a break at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region,  Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011. Eighteen miners died and another 20 were missing Friday after an explosion in the coal mine in eastern Ukraine known to be dangerous due to large methane build-ups, officials said.
Rescuers rest during a break at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region, Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011. Eighteen miners died and another 20 were missing Friday after an explosion in the...   (Photomig)
Relatives of dead miners react at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region, Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011.
Relatives of dead miners react at Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in Lugansk region, Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2011.   (Photomig)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
brawne
Jul 31, 2011 12:45 AM CDT
How terrible.  You know the Ukraine--right?  Chernobyl?  The pogroms way before that where the Red Army took all the Jews and at gun point made them walk into the river till they drowned?   Kiev--everybody has thyroid cancer cause Moscow wouldn't tolerate bad news and let everyone just get poisoned by radiation even though they were fifty miles away and could have taken iodine?  The Ukraine, a country that should make you fall on the ground and kiss your dirt everyday of your life--but you know nothing but good things and therefore you bitch and moan and are generally what the rest of the world would call a spoiled brat.  Not only that--they all gotta fear you.  How bad is that--only county that ever fried people to cinders with nuclear weapons and yet we feel such fear.  Know how a scared dog acts all the time bitting, lunging well, that's us to everyone else.  And before you say leave--I already have.  I can't imagine having one passport in a country where everyone is so afraid when they are actually the bogeyman.  You are all going insane.  I've watched it here now for two years.  The only thing that you have to fear is yourself.  Or fear itself--same thing.  Norway is devastated to have a mass murder--our first was back in the forties and we've  had a boatload and always will cause guns matter more to us than real freedom.  We execute people, we don't make health insurance one pool and available to all, we carry guns legally, we give millions to men who laugh at us while they sit on their yachts with all their taxable dollars in Antigua and we wonder why we got problems.  We are the problem.

Copyright 2012 Newser, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.

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