Odesa, the main port-city of Ukraine, has been the target of Russian bombings since 2022. The attacks intensified after Russia withdrew from the grain agreement. Tatsiana Ashurkevich spent a few days in the city and found among its residents a mix of fatalism, fatigue, and determination against the Russians.
The Ukrainian Black Sea coast and Odesa are historically Russia’s, according to a propaganda thesis recently reiterated by Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine is a socially, nationally and economically divided state, and its people, abandoned by the authorities, are waiting to be rescued by Russia, according to pro-Kremlin propaganda.