Ulyabovskaya Safety System ‘Deliberately Put out of Action’

A gas blast that killed over 100 Russian miners in March occurred after a safety system had been cynically deactivated, according to Reuters reports.

"The automatic system monitoring the level of methane at the mine was deliberately put out of action, in order to show a lower methane concentration and prevent a power shutdown in the mine," Konstantin Pulikovsky, head of the safety watchdog Rostekhnadzor, was quoted as saying.

He went on to tell assembled press that instructions to turn off the system had been delivered by "mine management at all levels".

Such revelations will put added pressure on Yuzhkuzbassugol and Evraz Group SA, co-owners of the mine, as well as the Russian mining industry in general, which has been under intense scrutiny since the incident.

The tragedy at the Ulyabovskaya mine in the Kernerovo region of Siberia was the country’s worst incident of its kind since the days of the Soviet Union.