Two gas service workers doing repairs on an underground gas pipeline in Kharkiv were killed after their workspace caved in, the State Emergency Service reported on Dec. 4.
The two workers, men aged 42 and 48, were buried under loose earth while working on the pipeline. More than 30 rescue workers were quickly summoned, but the two men were already dead.
The State Emergency Service said the matter was being investigated, but did not clarify what caused the collapse of the underground chamber the workers were doing repair work in.
Ukrainian municipal workers, firefighters, and those working with the State Emergency Service have seen the inherent stresses of their jobs exacerbated by Russia's full-scale invasion.
Two rescue workers from Ukraine's State Emergency Service were killed by Russian shelling on Nov. 15 in Zaporizhzhia Oblast while putting out a fire caused by earlier Russian missile attacks.