Reportage
Ukraine: Toretsk, a mining town reduced to cold and plunged into darkness
Audio 01:26
The mines of Toretsk, in the Donbass, in Ukraine.
© RFI/Clea Broadhurst
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The city of Toretsk, in the Donbass, is the target of increasingly frequent and massive bombardments.
The last two mines in the city have ceased to extract coal.
The local economy used to be 30% based on mining.
Today, the inhabitants live in the dark and the cold, because the Russians have been targeting energy points in Ukraine for a few weeks.
Winter as a weapon of war.
Push people to flee.
Toretsk is no exception.
Advertising
Read more
With our special correspondent in Toretsk,
Clea Broadhurst
“
Tomorrow, my boss will smash me into a thousand pieces.
He knows the press is there.
»
An omerta concerning the mines hovers over the city of Toretsk, as confirmed by this foreman at the entrance to one of the last two mines still in operation before the war.
They stopped extracting coal following the Russian bombardments.
But for safety reasons, the miners have to pump out the water to prevent the mines from flooding to the point where they can never operate again.
Tatiana, who still works at the mine today in Toretsk, Donbass in Ukraine.
© RFI/Clea Broadhurst
Tatyana is 65 years old.
With her back bent and six gallons of water empty on a small cart, she goes to fill them from the common cistern.
She has worked at the mine for 37 years.
If they don't pump the water, the city will be lost.
The water will go everywhere and the city will be washed away, and not just our city.
It's really difficult.
Extracting coal is our livelihood.
And now, we don't extract any more.
The mines of Toretsk were the lungs of the city, which many still consider their second home.
Today, like Nelya, they feel abandoned in this city.
Some say we are separatists and we are waiting for Russia.
We don't expect it.
They don't understand that my pension is 55 euros per month!
I can't go anywhere!
It's anarchy here, there is no one left.
The mines don't work anymore, it's a dead city, no one will fix it.
Without water or electricity for months, the mining town is gradually dying out.
►Read also: In Kherson, Ukrainians live under Russian strikes
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Ukraine
Russia