Ukraine’s Coal Mines Turn to Women during Wartime

Ukraine’s Coal Mines Turn to Women during Wartime

乌克兰的煤矿在战时转向妇女

【原文听力】

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　　By Gregory Stachel

　　26 November 2023

　　After more than a thousand of its workers went to fight Russia's invasion, a coal mine in eastern Ukraine needed workers. Its answer was to permit women to work underground for the first time in its history.

　　Over a hundred accepted the offer.

　　"I took this job because the war started and there were no other jobs," 22-year-old Krystyna said. The mine's officials asked Reuters not to give the last names of those who talked to the news service.

　　For five months, Krystyna has worked as a technician 470 meters below ground. She works on the small electric trains that move workers more than four kilometers down the mine.

　　She agreed to take the job after overcoming her fear of leaving her four-year-old son, Denys, at home with her mother. Her hometown of Pavlohrad is 100 kilometers from the front but it is often hit by Russian missiles.

　　The work is interesting but difficult, she said. The equipment is heavy and the steam is not easy to deal with. But the pay is good and she feels a sense of duty to stay and do her part for those who have gone to fight.

　　Her older brother worked in the same mine. He joined the army two weeks after the start of the invasion, Krystyna said. She added she worries greatly about him.

　　She said, "Our boys were taken to the front, and now we need to support them: there is no one else to work in the mine now."

　　Ukraine's coal industry was once one of the largest in Europe. It has suffered many years of decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The government-controlled market which it supplied suddenly was not there.

　　Russia-backed militias in eastern Ukraine took over many coal-rich areas in 2014. After the 2022 invasion, Russia occupied even more mines.

　　DTEK is the mine's owner and Ukraine's largest private energy company. It says nearly 3,000 of its 20,000 mineworkers are fighting.

　　Of the thousand miners at this mine and its nearby other mine who went to fight, 42 have been killed.

　　Although some women worked in the mines before the war, they were barred from doing jobs underground by the government. The work was considered too physically demanding. The policy had been in place since the Soviet times.

　　The ban was removed during the war. Now, about 400 women work underground at DTEK's mines. That is only 2.5 percent of the underground workforce.

　　"We do everything on the same level as the men – unless it's something very heavy that we can't lift," 43-year-old Natalia said. She also works as a technician who looks after the trains.

　　Natalia used to work in a shop selling electronics until she lost that job when Ukrainian businesses closed their doors at the beginning of the invasion. When she decided to work in the mine, her 19-year-old son had already worked in a neighboring mine for a year.

　　"Actually I had been convincing him not to go and work there," she remembered. But she said she was now happily working in the mine and planned to stay, even after the war.

　　I'm Gregory Stachel.

　　Max Hunder reported this story for Reuters. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：Gregory Stachel

　　2023年11月26日

　　在超过一千名工人去抵抗俄罗斯的入侵后，乌克兰东部的一座煤矿急需工人。他们的解决办法是，首次在历史上允许女性在地下工作。

　　有超过一百名女性接受了这个提议。

　　22岁的Krystyna说：“我接受这份工作是因为战争开始了，没有其他的工作。”矿山的官员要求路透社不要透露与新闻服务机构交谈的人的姓氏。

　　Krystyna已经在地下470米的地方作为技术员工作了五个月。她在小型电动火车上工作，这些火车将工人运送到矿井下超过四公里的地方。

　　在克服了将四岁的儿子Denys留在家中与她的母亲一起的恐惧后，她同意接受这份工作。她的家乡Pavlohrad距离前线100公里，但经常被俄罗斯的导弹击中。

　　她说，这项工作很有趣但很困难。设备很重，蒸汽不容易处理。但是薪水很好，她感到有责任留下来为那些去战斗的人做出自己的贡献。

　　她的哥哥在同一座矿山工作。Krystyna说，他在入侵开始两周后就加入了军队。她补充说她非常担心他。

　　她说：“我们的男孩被带到前线，现在我们需要支持他们：现在没有其他人可以在矿山工作。”

　　乌克兰的煤炭工业曾经是欧洲最大的之一。自苏联解体以来，它已经经历了多年的衰退。它供应的政府控制的市场突然消失了。

　　2014年，俄罗斯支持的乌克兰东部民兵接管了许多富含煤炭的地区。在2022年的入侵之后，俄罗斯占领了更多的矿山。

　　DTEK是矿山的所有者，也是乌克兰最大的私营能源公司。它表示，其20000名矿工中有近3000人正在战斗。

　　在这个矿山和附近的另一个矿山的千名矿工中，有42人在战斗中丧生。

　　尽管一些女性在战争前就在矿山工作，但政府禁止她们在地下工作。这项工作被认为过于体力劳动。这项政策自苏联时代以来一直存在。

　　在战争期间，这个禁令被取消。现在，大约有400名女性在DTEK的矿山地下工作。这只占地下劳动力的2.5%。

　　“我们做的所有事情都和男性在同一水平，除非是我们无法举起的非常重的东西，”43岁的Natalia说。她也是一名负责看管火车的技术员。

　　Natalia曾在一家电子产品商店工作，直到乌克兰的企业在入侵开始时关闭门户，她失去了那份工作。当她决定在矿山工作时，她19岁的儿子已经在附近的一座矿山工作了一年。

　　“实际上，我一直在劝他不要去那里工作，”她回忆道。但她说，她现在很高兴在矿山工作，并计划即使在战争结束后也要留下来。

　　我是Gregory Stachel。

　　Max Hunder为路透社报道了这个故事。Gregory Stachel为VOA学习英语改编了它。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　technician – n. 技术员，与工业或医学中的机器或科学的实际使用有关的工作的人

　　interesting – adj. 吸引你的注意力，使你想要了解更多关于某事或参与某事的信息：不枯燥或无聊

　　decline – v. 变得状况或质量更差

　　actually – adv. 实际上，用于强调一个陈述是真实的，尤其是当它在某种程度上与可能被认为或预期的情况不同时

　　convince – v.使（某人）同意做某事