[1] Shortly before 2 a.m. on 29 July 2011 an explosion occurred 3,000 feet (910 meters) underground in the mine.
[3] Investigators suspect the accident was caused by a powerful explosion of methane.
[4] Mykhailo Volynets, the head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners, called the Sukhodilska–Skhidna coal mine "one of the most dangerous in Ukraine" due to buildups of methane and coal dust.
[2] The President of Ukraine ordered the government to set up a commission to investigate the accident.
[5] Later that same day, Ukraine experienced a second fatal coal-mining accident when an elevator collapsed at the Bazhanov coal mine.