The number of victims from the mine has increased to 68. Another wounded miner died yesterday in the hospital in Mezhdurechensk.
Two injured miners are still in the hospital and 13 others are receiving medical treatment at home. Another 23 miners are still trapped in the mine. Their bodies have not been recovered and identified, which means that their families cannot bury them and be compensated for their deaths. More than 2.5 million cubic meters of water needs to be pumped out from the mine in order for their bodies to be recovered.
"There is a whole lake underground – 800 meters long and 400 meters wide," reported Kemerovo Region Governor Aman Tuleyev to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the other day. "All this water has to be pumped out from the mine in order to find the missing miners," he explained.
Tuleyev reassured Putin that this work would be completed by the middle of September and that it would be possible to resume operations at the mine. They began pumping water from the mine last week and this is expected to continue for about 50 days.
Putin promised the families of the miners that no current problems would prevent the government from fulfilling all of its commitments related to the accident at the Raspadskaya mine. He said, "All of the required funds from the federal and regional budgets have been transferred... But we have agreed that this will not be a single, formal payment... The region's administration and top managers of the mine were instructed to take a close look at the problems of every family affected."
The accident at Russia's largest coal mine occurred on the night of May 8. Two methane explosions blasted the mine. The first explosion hit a crew of miners and the second hit a rescue team.
Meanwhile, the causes of the accident at the mine have not yet been established and the investigation continues. Representatives from the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office said earlier that it was necessary to have access to the parts of the mine that are still flooded in order to get the full picture. Its official representative Vladimir Markin reported that the committee interrogated 600 witnesses and conducted almost 70 forensic examinations during the investigation.
Markin said that the committee had analyzed and compiled the materials collected by investigators, criminal law experts and operatives and had reviewed the preliminary results of the investigating group's work on the criminal case on the accident at the mine. Now it is necessary to promptly and thoroughly check on all the versions submitted and establish the role of all officials responsible for safety at the mine, Markin said. Criminal proceedings have been brought against the mine's former director Igor Volkov.
Andrei Krasikov