Shelling Traps 77 Miners in Donetsk Region

Shelling has trapped 77 miners in a coal mine in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine after power to the mine was cut off, Russia’s state RIA news agency has reported.

“As a result of shelling by [Ukrainian forces], power to the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk was cut off, 77 miners remain underground,” RIA said, citing the Russian-backed separatist region’s territorial defence.

There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv. Ukraine routinely ‘denies’ carrying out any ‘attacks’ on the two regions that comprise the Donbas, the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, where separatists seized large swaths of land in 2014.

Aljazeera /Shakirat Sadiq