Rescue teams have found 23 miners alive following a powerful explosion at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine.

But one miner was confirmed dead and 13 others were still missing more than 24 hours after the blast.

Oleksandr Turchynov is the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

"Mineworkers are believed to be down there. To reach them is our prime target, and the next target is the level of one thousand metres. It is very difficult to move on because the blast totally destroyed the transport infrastructure."

Emergency workers went deep into the mine to rescue survivors of Sunday's massive methane blast at the Karl Marx mine.

The 37 miners were working one thousand metres underground at the time of the blast.

Officials said by Monday evening, rescuers had helped 17 reach the surface.

The state-run Karl Marx mine, where another explosion killed seven in 1999, had been declared too dangerous to operate and the trapped miners were underground to improve safety conditions.

Ukraine has some of the world's most dangerous mines because of outdated equipment and poor safety standards.