In a Workforce Transformed by War, Ukrainian Women Are Now Working in Coal Mines

Jan 7, 2025 | Joanna Kakissis, Michael Robinson Chávez
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TERNIVKA, Ukraine — It's still dark when the busload of miners arrives for the morning shift at this small city in eastern Ukraine's coal country. Among the workers is 36-year-old Iryna Ostanko, effusive and athletic, smiling at her fellow coal workers in the cold dawn as they walk to the mine, owned by DTEK, Ukraine's private energy supplier.

"I used to work as an accountant," she says, "and then this job, which pays way better, opened up." Also heading to the mine is Ostanko's colleague, Tetiana Medvedenko. Her home is just half a mile away, so she walks to work. Medvedenko is 44, low-key and slight, and she was a housewife until earlier this year. Her husband also works at the mine.

"At first, he wasn't thrilled that I took this job," she says. "But now he sees that I can do the work well, and so he just kind of puts up with it."

Ostanko and Medvedenko — who work underground in logistical support of the coal mine — symbolize just how much war has changed Ukraine's workforce, especially in heavy industry and mining. Before Russia's February 2022 invasion, a law prohibited women from working in "harmful and dangerous conditions," including underground jobs in mines. By summer that same year, parliament lifted the ban due to a worker shortage.