NYT: Miners detonated the largest Ukrainian mine near Pokrovsk to prevent Russian forces from encircling the city.

The coking coal mine located near Pokrovsk, owned by "Metinvest," which supplied half of Ukraine's steel industry, operated until the very end. However, it had to be stopped and blown up to prevent the Russians from accessing the city's defenders through underground tunnels.

Source. This was reported by The New York Times.

In mid-December, Russian forces were already 1.5 km away from shaft No. 3 of the mine. The entrance to the shaft is situated in the village of Pishchane, west of the city. The situation raised concerns that they could seize the mine and use its tunnels to bypass Ukrainian positions.

In collaboration with the military, miners began drilling holes beneath the shaft to place explosives, several workers from the mine shared. Within a few days, around December 20, the shaft was detonated.

"Everything collapsed, and now it’s just solid rock," said Anton Telegin, who worked at the mine for 18 years. A manager from "Metinvest," speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that explosives were also planted in two other, more western shafts of the enterprise, located near the villages of Kotlyne and Udachne. It remains unclear whether they have already been activated, the newspaper reported.

On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the capture of Pishchane. According to the DeepState group, Russian troops are less than 2 km away from one of the two other mine shafts. So far, Kotlyne and Udachne remain under the control of Ukrainian forces, notes NYT.

The coking coal extraction enterprise, which is used in the steel industry, was the largest in Ukraine and one of the largest in Eastern Europe. After the Russian invasion and the front line approaching Pokrovsk in 2022, operations were partially halted, but resumed when the enemy was pushed back.

In 2023, coal production amounted to 3.2 million tons, nearing pre-war levels; around 4,500 people were employed at the enterprise at that time.

As of the summer of 2024, production was 7,000 tons per day, but by mid-December it had nearly dropped to 2,000 tons, a "Metinvest" manager told NYT. Russian troops approached within 8-10 km of Pokrovsk at the beginning of August. The mine was subjected to shelling, and at the end of September, four female employees were killed in one of the attacks (due to the mobilization of men, "Metinvest" had to hire additional women).

By December, only about 1,000 people were working at the mine, but when a substation supplying it with electricity was destroyed on December 24, production ceased, making it clear that the mine would have to be closed.

Despite failing to capture Pokrovsk, Russian forces, according to reports from the front, began to bypass the city from the south and attempted to advance westward towards the highway connecting it to Dnipropetrovsk region.

Background. On January 14, "Metinvest" announced that operations at the Pokrovsk mine had been suspended, stating that it had developed a plan to replace coking coal.