DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:
After nearly three years of war in Ukraine, women are taking on jobs once dominated by men, like coal mining. Before the war, no women worked underground in mines. Now there are hundreds of female miners, including at a coal mine not far from the front line. NPR Joanna Kakissis has our story from Eastern Ukraine.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: The sun has not yet risen on the coal town of Ternivka when busloads of miners pull up.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: A small crowd gets off the bus and walks to the local mine, which is owned by DTEK, Ukraine's private energy supplier. Among the miners is a woman in a puffy coat, 36-year-old Iryna Ostanko.
IRYNA OSTANKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She says her father was a coal miner and she remembers the coal dust ringing his lids like eyeliner.
OSTANKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We live in a region where no industry is as stable as coal," she says. "My father, my husband and now me - we're all coal workers."
TETIANA MEDVEDENKO: (Non-English language spoken).
OSTANKO: (Non-English language spoken).
Ostanko's colleague, Tetiana Medvedenko, is walking to the mine, which is just half a mile from her home. Medvedenko is 44, and she was a housewife until earlier this year when she spotted job openings at the mine where her husband also works.
MEDVEDENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She says, "at first, he wasn't thrilled that I took this job, but now he sees that I can do the work well, and so he just kind of puts up with it."
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
KAKISSIS: Before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a law prohibited women from working in harmful and dangerous conditions, including underground in mines. That ban was lifted that summer as male miners joined the military. Later, more men were drafted. Olena Tyshchenko, a DTEK communications manager, spread the word to recruit women to fill these jobs.
OLENA TYSHCHENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She says, "we reached a critical point where fewer workers at the mine would have meant that production would drop." The first thing the women do when arriving at the mine is change into bright protective suits and put on helmets, goggles and boots.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: Then they walk into a large, sturdy elevator and descend 870 feet underground. The mine's pathways look like narrow subway tunnels. To get around, the miners ride this miniature train.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: And Medvedenko and Ostanko, the female co-workers, get off at their stations.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
KAKISSIS: Medvedenko climbs into a small compartment next to the tracks and then turns on an engine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE RUNNING)
MEDVEDENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She explains that she and Ostanko coordinate the transportation of equipment and cargo around the mine.
MEDVEDENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "Yeah," Medvedenko says, "I really like this job."
The men working underground say they've gotten used to having female colleagues. But Serhii Val says he wouldn't like it if his own wife did this job.
SERHII VAL: (Speaking Ukrainian)
KAKISSIS: "To be honest," he says, "I don't think it's the place for women. They should stay home and raise children."
(SOUNDBITE OF JACKHAMMER DRILLING)
KAKISSIS: Val and the other men here operate heavy machinery, like this jackhammer and a combine...
(SOUNDBITE OF COMBINE RUNNING)
KAKISSIS: ...That cuts into the mine to dig out coal. Women do not do hard labor, but they are safer underground. Russia often attacks mines, and at one closer to the fighting, two women who worked aboveground at the entrance were killed after a missile strike.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Non-English language spoken).
VALENTINA RIABOVA: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: On the surface at the Ternivka mine, Valentina Riabova, a 50-year-old welder, says she doesn't have time to worry. She has worked at the repair shop here for 30 years, often as the only woman.
RIABOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She says, "look, I've gotten really good at my job and I don't want to brag, but I think I'm better than the men."
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL SCREECHING)
KAKISSIS: Six hours later, the women finish their shifts. Ostanko waits in a nearby park for the bus. She worries that more male miners will be drafted, including her husband.
OSTANKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "That is a painful question," she says.
OSTANKO: Ah.
KAKISSIS: And her voice breaks. Medvedenko, meanwhile, runs home. Her teenage daughter has food poisoning. Along the way, she passes a giant billboard, celebrating the new face of Ukraine's coal miners, and one of the faces on that billboard is hers. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Ternivka, Ukraine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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