CaptionStudents skip classes to hang out at the entrance to a store. Torez was once a flourishing coalmining town. Under communism, miners' salaries were among the highest in the Soviet Union and miners were seen as national heroes. But since Ukrainian independence the coal industry has attracted little government investment. The mines here are deep and extraction unprofitable. With many mines in disrepair, safety has become an issue. Scores of them have been closed, leaving many miners jobless.
