A Symbol of Loss in Almost Every Ukrainian Kitchen

“Salt gave us work and salt gave us life,” stated Ruslan, a salt miner turned soldier.

Ruslan, 45, was working 1,000 ft under the earth in one among Europe’s largest salt mines when the Russians launched their full-scale invasion. Almost a yr later, he was preventing close to the ruined metropolis of Bakhmut in japanese Ukraine when the Russians took management of his close by hometown, and the mine with it.

“I can’t even describe that feeling now,” he stated when requested to recall how he felt when the city, Soledar, was misplaced. “Everything dear to me, everything I loved, worked for, and dreamed about was shattered in an instant.”

Soledar — which suggests reward of salt — fell in January, permitting the Russians to step up their assault on Bakhmut, about 40 miles to the south. The small city, with solely 10,000 residents earlier than the assault, additionally held a particular place in Ukraine’s financial system and historical past.

The mine supplied greater than 90 p.c of the nation’s salt, and its operator, the state-owned firm Artemsil, exported salt to greater than 20 international locations. Now Ukraine is counting on imported salt for the primary time in its fashionable historical past.

But the nation’s connection to its salt runs deeper than economics: It is a matter of nationwide delight. Nearly each dwelling had a package deal of salt from Soledar. Salt was among the many first sources that made the japanese Donbas area well-known for its mineral wealth.

The remnants of greater than a century of mining have been spectacular, too — excavations greater than 1,000 ft deep, linked by greater than 200 miles of tunnels, and caverns with cathedral-like roofs large enough to host orchestral concert events, a soccer match and even a hot-air balloon. The Soledar mine had turn into a vacationer attraction, full with a sanitarium constructed across the unproven well being advantages of respiratory salt-infused air.

Soon after the Russians launched their invasion, Soledar got here below withering bombardment. Ruslan, whose job was to make sure contemporary air within the mines, recalled how they raced to get sufficient salt from the earth to replenish the nationwide strategic stockpile earlier than shelling pressured the corporate to droop operations in late April final yr.

The salt disappeared from retailer cabinets final summer time, however 20 tons of inventory that the federal government and the corporate managed to get well is now being bought inside Ukraine to boost cash for the struggle effort. Its packaging is predicated on a broadly shared illustration by the designer Artem Gusev that turned Artemsil’s salt-crystal emblem right into a Ukrainian trident and changed the phrase “salt” (“sil”) with “strength” (“mits”).

When Artemsil grew to become conscious of the illustration, it noticed the prospect to “add a little bit of strength to every Ukrainian,” stated its head of communications, Volodymyr Nizienko. According to the federal government platform dealing with the gross sales, United24, the marketing campaign has raised greater than $1.5 million.

The cash can’t change the greater than 2,500 jobs misplaced, or rebuild what the bombardment destroyed, however it’ll purchase drones for the Ukrainian navy to aim to win the city again.

The destruction of Soledar was a part of Russia’s broader focusing on of Ukraine’s financial system. The occupation of Enerhodar — a city whose identify means reward of power, dwelling to Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant — helped the Kremlin flip Ukraine from an power exporter into a rustic struggling to satisfy its personal energy wants.

Russian occupation of lands used to provide wheat, corn and sunflower oil — usually Ukraine’s high exports — has devastated the agricultural sector. The wreckage of Azovstal, the Mariupol plant the place Ukrainian troopers held out for months, is a testomony to Russia’s decimation of the nation’s metal business. And port blockades throttle what stays.

Before Soledar fell, the city’s annihilation was principally full.

“Everything has been completely destroyed; there is almost no life left,” President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in early January. “The whole land near Soledar is covered with corpses of occupiers and scars from strikes. This is what madness looks like.”

Ruslan, who now goes by the decision signal Miner, discovered of the Ukrainian forces’ withdrawal from Soledar from mates as he was preventing within the forest belt north of Bakhmut, close to the village of Pidhorodne.

He had a tough time placing into phrases the brutality of the Russian onslaught there, calling it “a nightmare.”

“Wagner group fighters were attacking us constantly; we didn’t have enough ammunition,” he stated, talking by phone from a place in a distinct a part of the nation. His full identify is being withheld for safety causes since he’s nonetheless on lively responsibility. “Not all of us survived, but we accomplished all the tasks and defended the place.”

He paused. “To be honest, it was hell,” he stated.

It was the pinnacle of the mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who launched a video on Jan. 12 trumpeting the autumn of Soledar — essentially the most important Russian territorial acquire in months. He claimed he was filming his victory speech within the salt caverns.

The symbolism was potent, and contested by the Ukrainians: Officials and staff from Artemsil stated the backdrop appeared like a close-by gypsum mine.

Mr. Prigozhin additionally sought to attribute navy significance to the mines, which have been rumored to carry an arsenal courting to Soviet occasions, saying he hoped to utilize each saved weapons and the tunnel community.

The British navy intelligence company stated Ukrainian and Russian officers have been prone to be involved about how the opposite aspect may use the huge community of tunnels to their benefit.

“Both sides are likely concerned that they could be used for infiltration behind their lines,” it stated in a press release.

Ukrainian officers declined to touch upon any potential weapons cache. But Viktoria Skrypnyk, the chief geologist for Artemsil, stated when Soledar fell that the usage of the mines for navy functions was unlikely: The shafts are too deep and slim to simply transfer navy tools out and in.

Ruslan — who as soon as guided excursions by the caverns — stated that he had not communicated with anybody in Soledar for the reason that Russians arrived, as a result of there was nobody left.

The handful of civilians who remained, he stated, have been both too outdated to maneuver or had appeared ahead to the Russian arrival as a result of they supported Moscow. Any others, he stated, had most likely been killed.

Ruslan’s spouse, son and daughter have been evacuated from Soledar earlier than the Russians got here, and the household doesn’t know when it’ll return. Some of his mates have given up on the considered going dwelling, constructing new lives in new cities.

“I cannot let it go,” Ruslan stated. “I know that we will win it back, we’ll come back there after the victory, we’ll restore everything and will live on.”

In the meantime, he stated, his household holds onto a single bag of salt from Soledar, saving it for holidays and the day they will go dwelling once more.

Anna Lukinova contributed reporting.