I just like to sit here and wait for nothing to happen

Hundreds of mines were established in the Donbass, attracting workers from all across the Soviet Union and bringing millions of Russians to this deserted region of Ukraine. Miners were celebrated as heroes of labour and given special benefits. “They could smoke where it was not allowed, and the state even gave them free milk to clean their lungs from the coal” continues Dima, “but most importantly, they were respected.”

Miners are still proud people, but their society and the coal mining industry have changed quite a lot since the times of the Soviet Union.

In the Donbass, coal was the main prize, and everybody went for it: once the official mines became the private fiefdoms of this or that oligarch, local criminals begun taking over the countryside to dig their own, private mines.

It is in these illegal mines that most young men of Donbass end up looking for work. “You can’t get a job in a legal one if you don’t have the right connections."



While miners in the official mines can look forward to a pension and enjoy a certain degree of protection, Boris’ friends are at the mercy of their bosses, and know that will not get any compensation in the case of injury of illness, two things that are almost taken for granted in a job in which every day might be your last. Sasha is Boris’ best friend, has worked in illegal mines for many years and looks quite depressed. “There was an accident, I got badly injured and was in a hospital for a month.” Since then he cannot work, “but the boss says the accident was my fault, and that I even own him money.”

http://www.postphotography.eu/longform/young-miners-donbass/