(MENAFN- AFP) After an hour-long trek down mine shafts twisting some 700 metres (2,300 feet) below ground level, Yevgeny Kachel lies on his stomach as he ploughs a drill into a seam of coal.
A few minutes crawl away, another sweat-drenched miner churns up clouds of thick black dust with a jackhammer.
Just as it has done since work started here some 50 years ago, the second shift at the Kalinovskaya-Vostochnaya mine in east Ukraine's Makiivka is getting into swing.
"It is the most complicated period I've known," says Kachel, 32, his face blackened from dust.
"But we still need coal, so we're continuing to work."
The problem is not what's happening down at the coal face, but what's taking place hundreds of metres above on the surface.
There, Russian-backed separatists are cementing control of the area after eight months of brutal conflict with Ukrainian government forces that has left more than 4,700 people dead.
"Sometimes, down in the mine it can feel easier," says a miner named Dmitry.
As a state-run enterprise, the Kalinovskaya-Vostochnaya mine is in a tricky position.
Before the pro-Moscow rebellion it was run by Ukraine and its coking coal was used to fuel state and private steel factories around the region.
Now, the rebels have declared that the mine is working not for Kiev but for their self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.
In this traditional mining region, the rebels are now in charge of considerable deposits of coal.
- Work without pay -
For the miners, the instability has meant they've gone without pay for long stretches -- and when money has been handed over, it's been only a portion of what's due.
"We didn't receive our salaries for months," says veteran Vladimir Govrilenko.
Even when they do get their pay, it's difficult for the workers to access it because the banking system is shut down in rebel-held areas.
"They say we've just received some of our pay for October, but I haven't been able to check yet," Govrilenko says.
Despite the hardships, however, the mine has only shut down for a few days when fighting got too close. The majority of miners have continued showing up for work.
Shift leader Sergei Grishanov says about 30 of the roughly 120 miners from this sector have signed up to fight for the rebels, but most of the others are still reporting for work.
"I think everyone has to want to do what they are best at," says miner Alexei Popov.
"If we signed up to fight and said let's stop extracting coal, what would happen How would the power stations work, how would people heat their homes and everything else"
Exactly how the mine is still running, who is profiting from the coal being brought out and where it is being sold is unclear.
"We now fall under control of the authorities currently in power where we are located," says Vera Lyashenko, spokeswoman for the group that runs the mine. "Especially since they are armed."
"Our main task isn't to fight or to involve ourselves in politics, but to carry on functioning for those working here."
For those who spend their days underground, there doesn't appear to be any other option but to keep working even after authorities in Kiev ordered all government companies in rebel areas to shut down.
"We got a letter telling us that we should stop work and that all state-run enterprises should be moved to areas under Ukrainian control," said safety manager Alexander Gorobtsov after emerging from the mine.
"What were we supposed to do Pack up the mine and all the deposits and move it across the country"
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