On 28 April 2022, an accident occurred to DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids employees who were carrying out an emergency repair on a 35 kV high-voltage line in the Makariv district. A crew consisting of three specialists got blown up by an explosive device on a dirt road. On 20 April, the State Emergency Service sappers already inspected this road in line with the State Emergency Service requirements to check if there are any explosive devices there and issued a clearance permitting to use this road. Despite this fact, an explosion took place when the employees were driving. One employee was fatally injured. The other two linemen are conscious and were sent to a hospital with injuries of varied degrees. The Company is providing all necessary support and financial assistance to the affected employees.
The maintenance crew was blown up by the explosive device while driving to the district unit office after the repair in the Makariv district had been completed. According to specialists' preliminary findings, the vehicle got blown up by a TNT-filled explosive device planted 60 centimetres deep with a tripping mechanism laid closer to the surface. This device has no metal. That is why it was difficult for the sappers to find it. On the return trip, the crew vehicle got in contact with this mechanism and the mine exploded.
The accident occurred despite the fact that the Company is following a dedicated clearance procedure, with permissions to start works being issued to make sure that linemen can work safely. The route that the crew was using was checked for hazardous devices by the State Emergency Service representatives in the presence of the company's representatives on 20 April. The crew got clearance for working safely in this place. The crew vehicle drove in the morning to the work site and back after the work was completed along one and the same approved road, not deviating from the route.
The committee set up to examine the incident will carefully look into the details to prevent similar accidents from occurring to our employees who bring back the lights to residents' homes.
The Company is deeply sympathetic to the family of the killed lead engineer and the injured members of the maintenance crew who have been working on the energy front since the first day of the war to bring back the lights in the areas freed from aggressors. The Company is providing all necessary support and financial assistance to the families of the injured employees and is making everything possible to make sure that they get the required treatment.
"We are doing everything we can to safeguard our employees as much as possible. Maintenance crews go to the work site only after the sappers who carefully clear the area from landmines and issue a permission. To our deepest sorrow, such tragedies do happen all the same. DTEK will definitely provide all necessary support for the injured energy workers to get treated and will help the family of the killed engineer. Thanks to the energy workers heroically doing their job during the war, thousands of people can now use electricity",
said Dmytro Sakharuk, DTEK's Executive director.
