$200 – “outside”, $500 – “inside”

Such daily allowances are now paid in the Donbass. Of course, not for mining work

On Friday, April 11, when they tried to storm the regional prosecutor’s office in Donetsk, and seized the regional police department in Slovyansk, when the first shots rang out and everyone was waiting in horror for reports of the victims of the confrontation, the black news really came. Seven men died. But this did not count, since the men were miners. And they had nothing to do with big politics.

Seven black bags were carried out on an orange oilcloth stretcher and unloaded into the Gazelle. Each other. As usual, neither the dead nor their living comrades objected. At the funeral, the director asked for forgiveness. Drilling and blasting was carried out in a nearby lava, people on the shift were not warned. It turned out that their own literally killed their own. Not the authorities, who forgot, that is, "scored" on the silent "black men". Not up to them at all: the situation in the region is so explosive, God forbid! And, most importantly, it is not clear who will take it, whom to serve further, whom to obey ...

The Skochinsky Mine is part of the state association "Donetsk Coal Energy Company". It is one of the deepest in the world, coal mining is difficult: the high temperature of the reservoir, the critical content of methane gas. During the years of independence, 113 miners died here, and how many in general, since the opening of the mine, since 1959, is unknown. In Soviet times, such statistics were strictly kept secret.

The norms of the Makeevka Research Institute for safety in the mining industry prohibit the Skochinsky mine from mining at full capacity, despite potential coal reserves. In fact, of course, that "human factor" below, does not care about the standards. From annoyance that it was not possible to sell life even for decent money. (About a third of the 160 coal enterprises in Donbass have been privatized, what was promising was once taken away by big business, primarily Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Nusenkis.)

Eighty percent of the mines remaining in state control, according to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, are unprofitable. They don't even cover their own expenses. However, they receive huge subsidies from the budget to keep themselves afloat. There is no talk of development, modernization at all. That is, quite rudely: due to the lack of normal working conditions, miners die cheaply, vacancies are filled immediately after the funeral.

Grants are beneficial to directors. Besides them, no one controls how much coal was actually “chopped”, some of which can be declared, and some can be pushed to the left. In addition, until now, budgetary funds have had to, if not flood, then at least sprinkle social tension.

In 2013, the Rada allocated UAH 13.3 billion from the treasury to coal miners against the backdrop of UAH 15.1 billion in losses from state-owned mines. Yanukovych, the father, could not allow a repetition of the miners' hunger riots. But Yanukovych, the eldest son, closely supervised the directors and the industry as a whole: kickbacks, etc. Money, having made a circle in his native region, returned to the “family”. Now Yanukovych-Rostovsky insistently demands that the "black men" remember his kindness and rise up.

However, the calls do not hit the target. Neither “state” nor “private” miners in any of the cities of Donbass massively raise tricolors above their headframes, do not demand to give all power to the Donetsk People’s Republic, do not rush to take away weapons from the police in order to shoot in the name of the country’s federal structure. This is done on their behalf - without them. Why?

It is not common for miners to put on "balaclavas". When they decided to go out, people saw right up to Kyiv - who and for what. The reason for the protests has always been the economy. They are not ready to overthrow any government while money is being paid at the box office. They already tried to turn the miners into a support group for Yanukovych at the very beginning of the Maidan. After they showed pictures of Mezhyhirya on TV, they don’t risk touching it anymore.

The “coal generals” are tense: they know perfectly well that the region is not a donor of Ukraine at all, it is a fairy tale for the poor times of the USSR. But if marginal politicians from pro-Russian organizations achieve what they want, then soon rallies in Cherepovets or Kuzbass under the slogan “Stop feeding Donbass!” will become a reality. And the local "generals" will turn into retired goats of drummers, and Akhmetov will not help. We'll have to cede everything to Mordashov with Evraz ...

Assaults and seizures are dusty work, and there were few people who wanted to do it just for the idea of the Donetsk Republic. The situation was saved by those who had to hide their faces.

I have information confirmed by the SBU: during March-April, officials of the Kiev branch of Sberbank of Russia (Vladimirskaya Street, 46) were actively transferring “resources in the amount of 45 million hryvnias from non-cash to cash” to the east of Ukraine. To finance what?

The miners here, indeed, are superfluous.