DONETSK, Ukraine: Thirty-two miners in eastern Ukraine were missing and feared dead Wednesday following an explosion at a coal mine in the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
The blast took place at Zasyadko mine in the separatist hub of Donetsk, near the city’s war-wrecked airport.
The chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Volodymyr Groysman, announced 32 miners killed in what he called a “terrible tragedy.”
“There are victims, currently numbering 32,” Groysman told the assembly, calling on lawmakers to observe a minute’s silence.
Mykola Volynko, head of the Miners’ Union of Donbass, which covers the eastern region, confirmed that figure.
“At the moment we know of 32 people dead. We don’t know how many people are still in the mine,” he told AFP.
But Grosyman later cast doubt on the fate of the miners, telling MPs that, “according to the latest information,” 32 miners were unaccounted for, but that only one was confirmed killed.
A spokesman for the Trade Union of Coal Miners in Ukraine told AFP that two bodies had been brought to the surface so far.
Rescue workers were trying to locate a further approximately 45 miners, said the spokesman who did not wish to be named, adding the chances of finding them alive were “practically zero.”
A spokeswoman for the ministry of emergency situations of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told AFP there were still scores of people trapped in the shaft.
32 die in Donetsk blast
32 die in Donetsk blast
Woman, boy drown off Greece after migrant boat sinks
- According to the UN refugee agency 107 people died or went missing in 2025 off the Greek coast
ATHENS: A boat carrying over 50 migrants sank off the Greek coast, killing a woman and a boy and leaving three others missing, the coast guard said Sunday.
“Fifty migrants have been rescued and are being cared for by the authorities,” after the accident off the island of Ikria in the northern Aegean Sea, a spokeswoman said.
“A rescue operation with a coast guard vessel is underway, and a team of rescuers and divers is expected later today,” she said.
Strong winds were hampering rescue efforts, according to public broadcaster ERT.
Ikaria lies close to Turkiye’s western coast, a frequent setoff point for migrants trying to enter the European Union.
Many migrants also take the much longer route from Libya to Crete in southern Greece.
The perilous crossings are often fatal. In early December, 17 people were found dead after their boat sank off Crete and 15 others were reported missing. Only two people survived.
According to the UN refugee agency 107 people died or went missing in 2025 off the Greek coast. The International Organization for Migration says about 33,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
