Living in an active war zone over an extended period of time can play odd tricks on the mind. A calm moment in the park can be suddenly overtaken by visions of the previous evening’s air strikes. Roller coaster-like mood swings become commonplace and loud bangs ignite the urge to flee. This is very much
On a languid recent August evening in downtown Odesa, the street action abruptly came to a standstill as a DJ played a contemporary version of the Ukrainian national anthem. Almost everyone stood up and began to sing along. As if on cue, a breeze brought to life a nearby Ukrainian flag fluttering where a monument
In recent days, the front line of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine appears to have shifted south toward the Black Sea—placing major port cities such as Mykolaiv and Odesa directly in the crosshairs of a Russian naval buildup that began just before its full-scale invasion in February 2022. While exact numbers are difficult to come by,
It’s set off a cascade of problems. Early Tuesday, large sections of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant in southern Ukraine gave way. Since 1956, the dam has pinched the Dnipro River, creating a massive reservoir upstream as far as Zaporizhzhia and, downstream, a succession of towns and villages along the river terminating
