21 dead, 16 missing in Ukraine twin mine tragedies

The twin disasters were the country's worst mining accidents since more than 100 miners were killed in an underground explosion in 2007.

President Viktor Yanukovych interrupted his vacation to visit the Lugansk mine, run by a private holding controlled by Rinat Akhmetov -- Ukraine's richest man who bankrolled his 2010 presidential campaign.

"Nine people are still underground. We don't know what condition they are in," the president said, while stressing the need to improve mine safety.

"Tragedies like these must not be allowed to happen again," he said.

Mining union head Dmitry Kaliventsev was pessimistic about the fate of the missing men.

"... most probably they are all dead," he told AFP by telephone.

At least 16 miners were killed in an explosion at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in the Lugansk region early Friday, the emergencies ministry said.

Another three were hospitalised with burns and other injuries, one of whom died later.

The remaining two injured were in a grave condition, suffering from a combination of burns and head injuries, said Pavel Malysh, top health official for the Lugansk region.

"The fate of nine miners remains unknown," said the Kiev-based emergencies ministry, adding that 28 people were working at the pit when the explosion occurred.

The Lugansk regional administration said the incident appeared to have been the result of a methane explosion, which has caused most of the country's past mining disasters.

A separate accident at the state-controlled Bazhanova mine in the town of Makiyivka in the neighbouring Donetsk region left four people dead, the emergencies ministry said.

A 70-metre-high (230-foot) mine headframe, used to lower miners into the mine and bring them up again, collapsed, it said.

Seven workers were missing after the collapse: officials said at least some of them appeared to be still alive but trapped under the rubble.

"The voices of two people can be heard from under the ruins," said Donetsk region governor Andriy Shishatsky.

"They're saying that more people are under them. The main task is to get the people out as soon as possible."

Another four were injured, the said, while more than 530 workers were able to resurface using emergency shafts.

An official with Metinvest Group, a private holding that includes the company operating the Lugansk region mine, said it had modern equipment but high levels of methane made it one of the most dangerous coal mines in the country.

System Capital Management Group, controlled by Akhmetov, has a 70 percent stake in Metinvest.

"The company spent huge money to upgrade it," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "But the mine is incredibly dangerous."

Albina Kosheleva, the Lugansk regional administration spokeswoman, said the mine had modern equipment and safety procedures there were at a "decent level".

The Metinvest official said families of the miners killed in the blast would each receive one million hryvnias ($125,000).

Dmitry Kalitventsev, leader of a local miners' union, said he feared the rescue teams would find more dead bodies at the Lugansk mine.

"It is most likely that all of them died," he told AFP of the missing workers.

Fatal accidents are a regular feature at Ukrainian mines, most of which are located in the country's industrial eastern region. Many of the mines are underfunded and poorly equipped, and safety violations are rife.

In the worst accident of its kind in the country's post-Soviet history, more than 100 miners were killed in an explosion in 2007 at the Zasyadko mine, one of the three biggest in Ukraine.