Serhii Kovalov doesn’t like sushi. Nor does the sushi chef at his restaurant in japanese Ukraine.
However when prospects began asking for it, Mr. Kovalov navigated each enemy shelling and atypical supply-chain points to get recent fish for Philadelphia rolls to his frontline city, Sloviansk.
Now, as Russian forces have drawn nearer and life will get extra bleak, many Sloviansk residents are weighing whether or not to flee. Not Mr. Kovalov. He’s decided to maintain serving sushi to troopers and civilians who’re looking for consolation, sustenance or a style of one thing particular after greater than three years of conflict.
“I do know I’m wanted right here,” the 30-year-old Mr. Kovalov mentioned, gesturing on the restaurant and the city outdoors that has lengthy been in Russia’s cross hairs. “So I keep.”
Sushi has lengthy been wildly popular in Ukraine, and for folks in Sloviansk, this deal with supplies a way of much-needed normalcy.
When Sloviansk got here under attack in February 2022 when Russia’s full-scale invasion started, sushi wasn’t even on the menu at Mr. Kovalov’s restaurant, Slavnyi Horod, or “Wonderful Metropolis.”
His was the one restaurant on the town that stayed open within the early days of the conflict, and suppliers wouldn’t ship.
“So we started constructing completely new logistics routes,” Mr. Kovalov mentioned. Colleagues relocated to central and western Ukraine, organising new vendor relationships. To get items again throughout the lively entrance line to Sloviansk, Mr. Kovalov typically drove round-trip himself.
As folks fled, the restaurant’s employees dwindled from 35 to seven and have become a “household,” Mr. Kovalov mentioned.
With no water or electrical energy, meals had been cooked outdoors on a hearth. Ultimately, the restaurant bought a generator and drilled a properly, with Mr. Kovalov intent on maintaining its doorways open.
Even after a missile destroyed his house, Mr. Kovalov headed to the restaurant — with a concussion.
“That was most likely the hardest day, having to tug myself collectively whereas strolling to work. I needed to shortly resolve: both go away, or keep and lead the staff by means of this,” he mentioned. “I walked in with a smile and mentioned, ‘It’s positive. We obtained fortunate this time — second birthday. Let’s maintain working.’”
Amid all that hardship, why would he introduce sushi — which requires particular storage and refrigeration — to the menu?
“It began with demand,” he mentioned merely, betraying his enterprise college diploma. “There have been no sushi eating places within the metropolis, and company started asking.”
“Whether or not I get pleasure from it or not doesn’t matter,” he insisted.
At this time, he has companions in Kyiv who examine and choose “very recent” uncooked fish, which is then shock-frozen and packed into cooled containers for the eight-hour overland journey to Sloviansk.
The highway weaves by means of Kharkiv, then Izium, cities whose smashed buildings inform the story of Russian bombardment, occupation and bitter fights for liberation. It passes a snow-covered forest once filled with mass graves of the invasion’s victims, and it runs shut sufficient to occupied territory to select up Russian stations on the radio.
From Izium, it’s about 40 minutes down the freeway and into Donetsk, the area that’s dwelling to Sloviansk. Russian forces have captured a big a part of Donetsk and goal to grab all of it.
The fish vans enter Sloviansk on the north fringe of city, the place a salt lake in higher instances drew vacationers looking for spa therapies. Lots of the spa buildings have been decreased to rubble, and troopers mill round within the ruins.
Anti-tank limitations line the highway into the town heart as one-story brick homes give technique to house blocks, some disfigured from assaults.
Regardless of the scars, Sloviansk is bustling. Vehicles honk, troopers store for groceries and kids wave at geese within the park.
However stress is mounting from heavy preventing close by. Russian forces are pushing to seize Chasiv Yar, a metropolis 30 miles away. Doing so might assist clear the way in which to take Kramatorsk — placing neighboring Sloviansk subsequent in line, residents worry.
Zoya Trubytsyna, 68, mentioned her suitcase was already packed.
“The entrance line is coming nearer,” she mentioned whereas strolling to work. “If one thing occurs in Kramatorsk, we’ll all go away.”
Life is already getting harder, she mentioned, with energy cuts and near-nightly explosions.
However Mr. Kovalov nonetheless manages to maintain his restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As he stirred a espresso and chatted with servers, a morning crowd stuffed the seats. Nobody stopped consuming when an air-raid warning wailed.
Blue takeout baggage adorned with handwritten hearts had been lined up behind the cashier for when the lunch rush began about an hour later.
An extended deli counter featured scorching meals, salads and sweets. The sushi station sat on the finish, with images of maki and tempura hanging above.
A soldier added a Philadelphia roll to his loaded tray of sauerkraut, blood sausage and lasagna.
“Truthfully, the sushi right here isn’t that tasty,” the 33-year-old soldier, who goes by the decision signal “Siesta,” mentioned after sharpening off his plates. However “it’s a technique to really feel one thing acquainted, like being at dwelling.”
As a civilian, Siesta mentioned, he would go for sushi with mates in Kyiv. However together with his mechanized battalion defending the close by metropolis of Lyman, the meals choices are fundamental. Coming to Sloviansk for “that little little bit of soy sauce,” he mentioned, was a uncommon deal with.
Slavnyi Horod is now not the one sushi spot on the town; there are a number of. Three blocks away is “Huge Roll,” which was closed for months after the full-scale invasion. Since reopening, enterprise has been unsteady, mentioned its proprietor, Nataliia Gordienko, who now retains solely a short-term provide of fish.
“We don’t know what’s going to occur subsequent,” she mentioned whereas boxing salmon rolls. “What’s the purpose of stockpiling if energy will get reduce off?”
Individuals are additionally petrified of Russian strikes, she added, ordering “shortly, shortly” after they are available in for takeout.
Of 21 rolls on provide at Mr. Kovalov’s restaurant, the Philadelphia roll — with salmon and cream cheese — is the preferred, in keeping with the sushi grasp, Dmytro. He appears baffled by its recognition — “it doesn’t actually exist in nature” — however has by no means been a sushi fan himself.
“Uncooked fish all the time raises suspicion,” he mentioned, smirking.
Nonetheless, Dmytro, who requested that solely his first identify be used for safety causes, finds the work gratifying, and he watches YouTube movies to study new strategies. However he isn’t positive he’ll persist with sushi endlessly.
“At this level, I don’t really feel like planning something,” he mentioned as a waitress whispered that an order was ready. “There’s a conflict in our nation, and it’s laborious to know what tomorrow or the day after will deliver.”
His boss, Mr. Kovalov, just isn’t resistant to the uncertainty. He’s conscious the entrance line in Donetsk is underneath stress, saying, “We’re afraid on daily basis.”
For now although, he mentioned, leaving just isn’t an possibility.
“Elsewhere simply doesn’t make sense,” he mentioned. “I’ve already discovered my objective proper right here.”
Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting.
