A year and a half ago, Ms. Yatsina, 21, was working as a nanny. Then friends told her that a mine in the eastern town of Pavlohrad was hiring women to replace men drafted into the military. The pay was good and the pension generous.
Their help is enormous because many men went to fight and are no longer available, said Serhiy Faraonov, the deputy head of the mine. Some 1,000 male workers at the mine have been drafted, he said, or about a fifth of the total work force.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Ukrainian government suspended a law that had barred women from working underground and in harmful or dangerous conditions. This change allowed women like Ms. Yatsina to enter the workforce in mining.
I would have never thought that I would be working in a mine, Ms. Yatsina said, taking a short break in the sweltering heat of the tunnel. I would have never imagined that.
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