The chairman of the Independent Miners Union of Ukraine Mikhail Volynets believes that the tragedy at the Stepnaya mine is the result of negligence of the management and the violation of the safety rules.
“For instance, one of the miners could only use the fourth self-rescuer, only after that he was able to help the others. Self-rescuers are manufactured on the occupied territory, and Lvivugol has only 42% of the needed equipment”, he said.
According to him, Lvivugol witnessed systematic embezzlement of funds, reaching 20 million UAH each month. So instead of equipment repair or mine modernization the funds went to someone’s pocket.
“They didn’t buy the simplest safety equipment. They used cable, which shouldn’t have been used according to the safety rules. The cable ignited. The automatic control system didn’t work, nor did the automatic gas protection”, Volynets added. (Ukrainian metal)