2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: July: a month marked by disasters (01/12/03)

2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

July: a month marked by disasters

For Ukraine, perhaps the most difficult and even chilling moments of the year came in July, generally a leisurely time for the country as people take vacations in the Crimea or relax at their dachas or farmhouses. This year the seventh month of the year proved a tragic and deadly time for many Ukrainians, especially for those living in the western city of Lviv or in the eastern mining regions.

The first indication that a calamitous month had begun for Ukraine's mining regions came on July 7 when 35 miners lost their lives as a fire swept through a colliery of the Ukraina mine in the small town of Ukraina, Donetsk Oblast.

Most of the 114 miners working in the shafts in the wee hours of the morning escaped, but flames shooting up from the lower shafts as they tried vainly to make their way to freedom engulfed the luckless 35.

The mine's director and several lower-level managers were arrested on charges of negligent homicide. First Vice Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna visited the mine on July 10 and blamed terrible work conditions and shoddy discipline for the fatalities.

Two weeks later, a methane explosion rocked the Yuvileina mine in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 100 kilometers to the west of the Ukraina mine, killing six more miners. Nineteen workers were hospitalized, seven of them critically. The local procurator's office announced that it was investigating "violations of safety rules in a very dangerous work environment which resulted in death." The director of the mine was arrested on charges of negligent homicide. And again First Vice Prime Minister Dubyna arrived on the scene, where he was told that the cause of the explosion was improper use of electronic devices and violations of procedures during blasting operations.

The month ended just as it had begun for the mineworkers of the Donbas when the infamous Zasiadko mine took more victims on July 31. Twenty miners died as a result of an explosion, which many experts believed could have been prevented. The mine, owned by former Prime Minister Yukhym Zviahilskyi, pays the best wages and is considered the most productive mine in the country, but it has also seen the most fatal disasters during its years of operation.

This time a build-up of coal dust about a kilometer below the surface ignited, killing all but one of the 21 workers present. Minister Dubyna visited the site of this latest mining tragedy. Officials charged a deputy director and the chief of blasting operations with criminal negligence. As families grieved and buried their loved ones, President Leonid Kuchma ordered a thorough check of mining safety standards and procedures.

"Ukraine does not need coal at such a cost," said Mr. Kuchma.

Even so, less than a month later, on August 20, another fire swept through the Zasiadko mine. Of the 1,680 miners in the various shafts at the time, 21 were hospitalized. There were no fatalities this time.

Another tragedy, one that had occurred years earlier only to be discovered now, came to light when monks renovating the 400-year-old Basilian Monastery in Zhovka, Lviv Oblast, unearthed scores of human bones buried in the monastery's basement. The bodies, except for several exceptions, had no obvious marks of violence. Also strange, they all lacked clothing and jewelry.

While the local procurator's office refused to draw conclusions until the 228 sets of human remains had been analyzed, local officials of the Memorial Society, dedicated to investigating and bringing to light Soviet crimes and atrocities, laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Soviet system. They showed evidence that the deaths had occurred in the immediate years after World War II.

The society said that the bodies, mostly women and children, were either the remains of Ukrainian victims who had resisted resettlement under Akcja Wisla and had returned, or had refused to become local spies for Soviet authorities. Another theory held that perhaps they were unfortunates who successfully escaped round-ups of alleged "anti-Soviet agents" for deportation to the East, only to be found later and eliminated.

However, some experts maintained that these could also have been Jews who were killed as part of the Nazi extermination process.

Yet, the most tragic event in a month filled with grief was the air disaster at the Sknyliv air base outside Lviv. On July 27, as some 8,000 parents and children watched a thrilling airshow commemorating the 60th anniversary of the local Lviv air force command, a Sukhoi-27 jet aircraft lost control as it did a dive toward the crowd and crashed into a sea of onlookers, tumbling along the tarmac before exploding into a ball of flame. As a result, 76 people died, among them 27 children. Another 241 people, including 83 children, were hospitalized. Thirteen children lost at least one parent, while three kids lost both.

The two pilots of the Soviet-era jet were arrested on various charges, including failure to properly prepare for the event with a practice drill at the Sknyliv site and for performing their stunts over the crowd, which is expressly prohibited by law.

Several high-ranking Ukrainian navy generals were relieved of command as well. Minister of Defense Oleksander Shkidchenko also submitted his resignation, which President Kuchma did not accept.

One of the young kids who survived the Sknyliv air disaster would have to live through another calamity later in the year. Kyrylo Holovenko, 13, after having survived the Sknyliv disaster perhaps only because he had gotten there late, just happened to be in Moscow on October 23 with his mother, who made what would be a bad decision to go see the play "Nord-Ost."

Young Kyrylo and his mother became one of some 800 hostages taken by Chechen terrorists and held in the theater for days before a Russian special forces operation used gas and extreme methods to obtain the release of the hostages. While the action took some 120 lives, the young Mr. Holovenko, a survivor in the true meaning of the word, was not among them.

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