Here is the AP Worldstream article we are reading today (at least if we get the Action Ukraine Report we are). But don't just read this article, read the one I remember from way way back in July.

IN HARD-LUCK MINING REGION, YANUKOVYCH WINS LOYALTY FOR PROVIDING MODEST, YET STABLE, SALARIES AND PENSIONS

By Yuras Karmanau, AP Worldstream, Fri, Dec 03, 2004

Yevgeny Dogadin's face is that of an old man _ its weary lines carved by work as difficult as this mining town's troubled past. But Dogadin is just 39. For the past eight years, he has worked at the Ukraina mine, risking his health and life each time he steps into the elevator for the 500-meter trip down the shaft where he gouges out the ore that keeps eastern Ukraine's industries chugging. Two years ago, 35 of his colleagues were killed in a mine fire. "I'm lucky," he said. "I not only have a job, I get a regular salary."

Dogadin, who earns 840 hryvna (US$155) a month, attributes his good fortune to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych _ the would-be president whom Ukrainian opposition leaders accuse of vote-rigging. But for Dogadin, ho carries a small plastic calendar with a portrait of Yanukovych like a talisman, the premier is the reason why this weary miner has drawn a regular salary for the past two years.

Like Dogadin, Yanukovych hails from the same coal-producing region of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbass. In Ukrainsk, Yanukovych defenders are many, and their passionate support for him stems from the region's tumultuous economic history. Mine closures in the 1990s prompted an exodus that whittled down the town's population from 28,000 to 12,000 in just a decade. Only the Ukraina mine remained open.

Boarded-up windows and doors dot Ukrainsk's five-story, prefabricated buildings. At night, people take their place in the line that winds around bonfires near the entrance to the town's only bank where anxious residents fearful that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko may become president are trying to cash out their savings.

"I'm really afraid that the times of the fascist Yushchenko will return, when we didn't see money for two or three years," said Maria Basak, referring to the opposition candidate's tenure as Central Bank head and prime minister in the 1990s. Those were the years when Ukraine underwent painful reforms including mine closures that put whole towns out of work.

Basak, who was No. 346 in line to pick up her monthly pension of 280 hryvna (US$51), said she voted for Yanukovych "because he gave the miners the possibility to feel a bit like people." Sixty-six-year-old Yegor Sidorenko lost his job 10 years ago, when the Selidovskaya mine was closed. "Had I been younger, I would never have set foot here," said the former miner, who lives on a pension of 300 hryvna (US$55) a month. His is a common refrain.

The majority of apartment buildings in Ukrainsk have not had heating for that last four years. No one can remember when they last had hot running water; even the cold water runs just four or five hours a day. "My husband mines coal for the electric system, but we're freezing," said Svetlana Matrik, 39, who was huddling with her three children around a wood-burning stove built into the kitchen.

Still, she has no plans to leave _ unless Yushchenko comes to power. "Then we'll start packing our bags," she said. "The only question is, where will we go?"   -30-    [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]

A heartrending story about how Yushchenko's economic reforms put miners out of jobs, solid, working class jobs. And where will they go? The answer is anywhere but here:

FAMILIES, FRIENDS MOURN VICTIMS OF UKRAINE MINE BLAST

Efrem Lukatsky, AP Worldstream, Dimitrovo, Ukraine, Thursday, Jul 22, 2004

DIMITROVO, Ukraine - Hundreds of weeping relatives, friends and colleagues paid their last respects Thursday at a funerals 15 miners who were among at least 31 killed in an explosion and fire in a Ukrainian mine.

Several women fainted with grief as coffins were lowered into graves at a cemetery in the tiny eastern town of Dimitrovo near the Krasnolimanskaya mine, the site of Monday's powerful methane blast. Flags adorned with black ribbons were at half-staff, and a brass band played funeral march.

Funerals for another 15 victims were held in other towns near the mine in the Donestk region, where thousands of people live and die by coal mining. One body could not be buried because it was burned beyond recognition, and five miners are missing and presumed dead after the blast.

"What have you done?" one woman cried at the funeral in Dimitrovo, lashing out at authorities widely seen as the culprits in deadly accidents in Ukrainian mines, considered to be among the world's most dangerous.

High concentrations of methane gas, safety violations, rampant negligence, corruption and obsolete equipment plague the country's mines. Frequent methane leaks made the Krasnolimanskaya mine one of the most perilous.

In an eulogy, Serhiy Kobzarenko, a miner and a relative of Oleksandr Ostapenko and his 20-year old son Roman _ both killed in the blast _ said that miners "do dangerous work" and added ominously that "we should be ready to share the same fate." "Roman was about to get married in August ... on that day, we will commemorate his death," Kobzarenko said.

A methane gas and coal dust explosion sparked the blaze Monday evening, as 48 Krasnolimanskaya miners were changing shifts nearly 970 meters (3,180 feet) below the surface. Twelve escaped uninjured.

As relatives mourned the dead, dozens of emergency workers braved high levels of gas and scorching temperatures as they resumed their search for the bodies of the five missing miners. Officials said it could take three days for crews to reach the site where the bodies were expected to be, because the shaft and tunnels at the mine were still extremely hot.

Rescuers "will advance 100 meters (yards) every six hours," Ihor Chichasov, a spokesman for the regional governor, told reporters. For almost two days workers pumped massive amounts of water and nitrogen gas to extinguish fires and to cool the tunnels, allowing search teams to advance, he said. "The temperature in that area is still high, although it decreased to some 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit)," Chichasov said.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has said the government would set aside about US$1.1 million in financial aid for victims' families. A top Ukrainian soccer team from the regional capital, Shakhtar Donetsk, also donated aid worth some US$300,000.

Yanukovych also vowed that the government would do more to improve safety in the Ukrainian mines. Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, 4,276 miners have died in accidents in Ukraine, according to the miners union.

Here's the ugly bit: Ukraine's mines are not just "among the worst in the world" a couple of years ago, they were vying with Nigeria for #1 most deadly coal mines on the face of the planet. It's not just these people's industry that's dying, it's their friends.

The mines are ruthlessly exploited by oligarchs, who couldn't care less how many of their miners die if there are more out of work miners to take their places. The miners have no exposure to any news--TV, print, or otherwise, which is not relentlessly biased against the opposition, hence the ridiculous idea that Yushchenko is going to usher in FASCISM of all things. They are poor, they are in the dark. And they are dying. Yushchenko was closing oligarch exploited deathtraps.

I don't know where else these people can go for work. Ukraine is a terribly hard place for an out-of-towner with no transferrable work experience. There's a lot of misery. But keeping the mines open is like intentionally picking at a wound so it doesn't heal.

[thanks, as usual, to the AUR]