DONETSK (Sputnik) – He said that the rescue operation was being carried out with a reserve generator having been connected and the miners expected to be freed in several hours.
"As a result of dispersion of the striking elements of the explosive device a power substation located near the road, where a land mine was located, was damaged. As a result of [the damages] the mine Shcheglovskaya-Glubokaya in Makiivka was totally de-energized and 126 miners have been blocked under the ground," Basurin told journalists.
Earlier in the day, Basurin said that one DPR soldier had been killed and one more injured as a result of the land mine explosion hitting a car.
The eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas does not acknowledge the legitimacy of a February 2014 coup in Ukraine. The new Kiev regime launched a military operation against eastern Ukraine in April 2014 but failed to regain control over the breakaway territories.
