Ukrainian miners: Portraits

The miners in this series all work at Stakhanov mine in eastern Ukraine. It is named after its most famous ex-employee, Alexey Stakhanov, who set a record for coal production in 1935. In five hours and 32 minutes, he managed to hew out 102 tonnes of coal.
Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

'Oil and gas have been so much in the news in recent decades,' ­Kosorukov says. 'People imagine coal doesn’t exist any more. In fact, it is responsible for a major part of the world’s energy.'
Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

Stakhanov mine is part of a c­omplex of four mines owned by the state. Production has fallen since Soviet times, from 1m tonnes a year under communism to 375,000 today. There are fewer miners, too: 2,381 compared with 10,000-12,000 in the mine’s heyday
Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

The miners photographed by Kosorukov were indifferent to Stakhanov’s record.
Photograph: GlebKosorukovCopyright/glebk@aha/Gleb Kosorukov

'Miners face extremes in their profession. Mortality is high,' Kosorukov says. Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

'In some ways miners are modern saints,' Kosorukov says. 'They know that some day they may never come back from the mine.' Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

The photos were taken in September 2009 at the Stakhanov mine, 40km from the ­eastern industrial town of Donetsk. Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

The miners were photographed as they returned to the ground from a six-hour shift. Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov

'Miners are responsible for by far the biggest energy resource of today's civilisation,' Kosorukov says, 'and to some extent their job is a sort of sacrifice in the name of humankind.'

To view more images, go to glebkosorukov.com
Photograph: Gleb Kosorukov