War in Ukraine: 230m underground, with underground miners fighting the battle for energy

Face covered with soot, crawling at the bottom of a dark gallery barely a meter high, Vitaliï squirms and watches over the steel monster which is about to attack the rock. A brief alarm sounds and the device’s cogwheels spring into action. A metallic crackle invades the suffocating space. Sprays of black dust shoot up, the crushed pieces of ore fall. “This is where we gain our energy independence,” says Evgueniï, the team leader, progressing as best he can inside this uncomfortable gut criss-crossed with cables, barely lit by the gleam of headlamps. attached to helmets.