KYIV. Oct 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Coal miners at the Kapustin coal mine in Pryvillia in Luhansk region have been on a strike below the surface of the earth for over a week, demanding that their wage arrears be paid out and the current management of the open JSC Lysychankvuhillia be removed from office.

Speaking at a news conference at Interfax-Ukraine on October 24, People's Deputy Serhiy Shakhov (the People's Will group, a member of Our Land party) said that 26 coal miners at the Kapustin coal mine (Lysychankvuhillia) have been on a strike, with seven of them being taken to the hospital so far. "They have in fact gone on a hunger strike. And the Minister [of Energy and Coal Mining Ihor Nasalyk] seems not to care that the people are striking," he said.

The MP recalled that Verkhovna Rada passed law No. 8362 as long ago as June 13 that stipulates the funding of the coal mining industry; however, wage arrears have not been paid to coal miners yet.

"The miners demand that the directors general who are puppets of the current minister be prosecuted and Lysychankvuhillia's head Valentyn Kyseliov be dismissed. The miners demand that their wage arrears be paid off in full in accordance with the law that was adopted as long ago as June," he said.

Shakhov said that the wage arrears at the state-run coal mining enterprises in Ukraine have already exceeded UAH 1 billion.

In his turn, speaking at the news conference, Mykhailo Volynets, chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Coal Miners of Ukraine, said that if no proper action is taken in response to the current situation, the Ukrainian miners will block the western part of the state border in Volyn and Lviv regions in order to attract attention to the scale of corruption in the coal industry of Ukraine. "We need to save the power industry and the power security of the nation," he said.

"How many more strikes, protests, blocked roads, and hunger strikes are needed for us to be heard by the prime minister, the president, and the MPs?" Volynets wondered.

The coal miners went on an underground strike on October 19, 2018. At first, 18 miners working in the first shift decided to stay underground, being joined by 15 miners of the second shift later in the day. The wage arrears to workers of the Kapustin coal mine have already exceeded UAH 126 million.