In a workforce transformed by war, Ukrainian women are now working in coal mines
Originally published by Joanna Kakissis and Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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.”