 |
 Soledar Salt Mine concert hall | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Soledar |
| Oblast | Donetsk |
| Country | Ukraine |
| Production | |
| Products | Salt |
| Type | Underground |
| Greatest depth | 288 metres (945 ft) |
The Soledar Salt Mine, also known as the Artemsil Salt Mine, is a major salt mining complex located in the city of Soledar, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mine was damaged, and is currently defunct. Along with the rest of Soledar, the mines were captured by Russia in the battle of Soledar. [1]
The scale of the mines is vast, with 125 mi (201 km) of tunnels [2] at a depth of 288 m (945 ft), [3] and many of the chambers are 30 m (98 ft) in height. [4] The largest resembles a hangar of about 100 m (330 ft) length and 40 m (130 ft) width and height, and has accommodated soccer matches and the inflation of a hot air balloon. [5] There are accommodation areas in the chambers and even a church. [6]
The temperature underground is constant at 14–15 °C, with 14.93 PSI air pressure and 60% humidity regardless of the time of the year, [7] [8] giving rise to claims of healing properties for lung conditions. [9]
The mining of salt started in the town of Soledar in the 19th century. [10]
During the Battle of Soledar, on 10 January 2023, pro-Russian outlets, including Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed the mines were largely occupied by Russian and Wagner Forces, although these reports were not independently verified. [11] After the claimed Russian capture of the whole city, Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian occupation administration of Donetsk Oblast, said during a visit to Soledar in late January 2023 that the salt mines remained damaged and difficult to descend into. [12]
Soledar's long history of mining has created an "underground city" of tunnels [13] that Deutsche Welle described as a "magnet for tourists". [14] There are guided tours as deep as 200–300 metres (660–980 ft), with attractions including sculptures made of salt crystals. [14]
In 2004 and 2006, a cave was repurposed to host classical music concerts by the Donetsk Symphony Orchestra underground. [13] In September 2020, the same chamber was also used for a soccer (football) match. [15] [13] It was also host to the first-ever underground hot air balloon flight, as listed in the Guinness Book of Records. [16]
Since the early 1990s, [16] the chambers have also contained "speleosanatoriums": [14] rooms made of salt that attempt to "recreate the allegedly restorative conditions of salt mines", [17] where 100 patients with respiratory diseases are treated. [14] This practice is part of the controversial halotherapy industry, in which it is believed that the inhalation of salt dust is a "miracle cure for respiratory illnesses". [17]
A particle physics detector, the Artyomovsk Scintillation Detector , is located in the mine.[ citation needed ]
Donetsk, formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka, Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic. The population was estimated at 901,645 in the city core, with over 2 million in the metropolitan area (2011). According to the 2001 census, Donetsk was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine.
The Donbas or Donbass is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Makiivka ; Russian: Макеевка, romanized: Makeyevka, IPA:[mɐˈkʲe(j)ɪfkə]), formerly Dmytriivsk until 1931, is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine, located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) east from Donetsk. The two cities are practically a conurbation. It has a population of 338,968. It hosts the administration of Makiivka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.
Bakhmut is a city in eastern Ukraine. It is officially the administrative center of Bakhmut urban hromada and Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast. The city is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 90 kilometres north of Donetsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Bakhmut was designated a city of regional significance until 2020, when the designation was abolished. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of 71,094.
Myrnohrad, formerly Dymytrov, is a city of oblast significance in Donetsk Oblast (province) of Ukraine. Population: 46,098.
Soledar is a destroyed city in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Situated in the historical and economic Donbas region within eastern Ukraine, Soledar has traditionally been highly important for its salt mining industry, from which it derives its name. The last estimate of its population before the destruction of the city was 10,490, in 2022.
Marinka or Maryinka is a city in Pokrovsk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Its estimated population in 2022 was 9,089 with 2001 estimates pinning it at 10,530.
The 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar" is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces formed in 1992. It has been described as "one of the most brutally effective" of Ukraine’s front-line brigades.
Zasyadko Mine is a coal mining company in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk. Following the start of the War in Donbass in 2014 the mine became situated in rebel controlled territory.
Chystiakove, formerly Torez until 2016, is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The city is a center of the regional coal industry and much of its economy relies on mining, despite a recent drop in the number of employed miners. The city has a population of 53,462.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2015.
The Joint Centre for Control and Coordination on ceasefire and stabilization of the demarcation line, abbreviated JCCC, is an organization composed of Ukrainian and Russian military officers, whose role is to help implement the Minsk ceasefire agreements and ensure the safety of OSCE monitors in the Russo-Ukrainian War. It was established September 26, 2014. In April 2015, Ukrainian and Russian representatives began to keep separate logs of ceasefire violations. The Russian members left Ukraine in December 2017.
Klivazh is the site of an underground peaceful nuclear explosion in the Soviet program of Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. The event took place in the Donetsk oblast of the Ukrainian SSR on September 16, 1979. The site flooded with underground waters in 2018 after Russian military occupation during Russo-Ukrainian War, with a risk of radiological pollution of drinking water in the area.
The eastern Ukraine campaign is a theatre of operation in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine affecting oblasts in eastern Ukraine: Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast and Kharkiv Oblast. The invasion is an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which had been waging between Ukraine and Russian proxies since 2014.
The battle of Donbas was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region. Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.
The Sheikh Mansur Chechen Peacekeeping Battalion or simply the Sheikh Mansur Battalion is one of several Chechen volunteer Armed Formations participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The battalion is named in honour of Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen military commander and an Islamic leader who fought against the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Caucasus during the late 18th century.
Artemsil or Artemsol is a temporarily defunct state-owned industrial association for salt production in the Donetsk oblast, Ukraine. One of the largest in the world. It ceased its operations because of Russian forces advancing the region and air striking the plant facilities.
The battle of Bakhmut is a major battle taking place between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian Armed Forces in and around the city of Bakhmut during the larger eastern Ukraine campaign. It is one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war so far.
The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The vast salt mines are owned by state enterprise Artemsil, which was one the biggest producers of salt in Europe, but halted operations following Russia's invasion in February.
Underground physics laboratories (m of water equiv. shielding) | |
|---|---|
|
