The Economist - UK (2022-05-07)

34 Europe TheEconomistMay7th 2022

Ukraine’swar

How things are doneinOdessa

T

he sunisshining,thefountainsare

playing  and  Odessans  are  enjoying

simple  pleasures—most  of  all  that  of  see­

ing their city come back to life. Primorsky

(“Seaside”) Boulevard is still cordoned off,

and the statue of the Duc de Richelieu, the

city’s  early­19th­century  governor,  is  co­

vered in sandbags. But the tank traps have

been  moved  to  the  outskirts,  where  the

lines of defence now lie.

The actual fighting has moved to Myko­

laiv,  some  130km  away.  Russian  shelling

left  that  city’s  residents  without  water,  so

Odessans  are  sending  them  bottled  water

and  food.  In  Odessa  the  main  threat  now

comes  from  the  occasional  Russian  mis­

sile. Even when air­raid sirens wail, people

carry on with their lives.

In  the  morning  they  flock  to  Privoz,

Odessa’s  biggest  market  and  the  source  of

much  folklore.  The  fish  rows  are  emptier

than usual, as mines have barred fishing in

the Black Sea, and tomatoes are twice as ex­

pensive  as  before  the  war,  but  nobody  is

complaining.  In  the  evening,  in  the  city

gardens,  a  local  crooner  sings  romantic

songs  in  Ukrainian  to  people  on  benches

and  in  cafés.  As  10pm  approaches,  the

streets empty and men with guns come out

to enforce the curfew.

Odessa,  a  cosmopolitan  port  city  of

traders,  adventurers,  writers,  gangsters

and  romantics,  of  multiple  ethnicities,

languages and cultures, is known for story­

telling. And the story it tells today is of life

winning over war. Odessans are proud that

the  most  popular  meme  of  this  war  was

coined  off  their  coast,  on  Snake  Island,

where Ukrainian border guards told a Rus­

sian  warship  “Go  fuck  yourself.”  They  are

even prouder that on April 14th their army

sank  the  Moskva,  Russia’s  Black  Sea  flag­

ship.  Four  days  later  they  queued  to  buy

new postage stamps marking the meme.

Since then there have been no Russian

ships  on  the  horizon.  At  Arcadia  beach,

people are jogging and cafés are reopening.

But  the  beaches  are  still  mined,  and  only

the  bravest  venture  into  the  water.  More

important,  Odessa’s  economic  heart,  the

port  which  carries  Ukraine’s  grain  to  the

world, is blockaded. 

Russia  still  yearns  to  conquer  Odessa,

once a jewel of the Russian empire. But ac­

cordingtoGennadiyTrukhanov,thecity’s

mayor,theywantit“intactandbeautiful”,

sotheyareunlikelytobombitshistoric

centre.Theirplanistocutitofffromthe

restofUkrainebyadvancingfromMyko­

laivtoTransnistria,a pro­Russianseparat­

istregionofMoldova(seepreviousstory).

RussiaoncehopedOdessawouldgreet

itssoldierswithflowers,countingperhaps

onMrTrukhanov’smanytiestoRussia.A

formerSovietofficer,hewasoneofthefirst

towarnthatRussiamightinvade,andpre­

paredbyrevampingbombshelters.Rus­

sianisthelinguafrancainthiscityof 130

nationalities, but thatdoesnot makeit

pro­Russian,MrTrukhanovsays.Heisdis­

gustedbytheRussianarmy’sbehaviour:

“Thesearenotmilitarywarriors,theyare

murderers,drivenonlybyfearofwhatwill

happento themiftheydon’tfollowor­

ders—andbymoney.”

MrTrukhanov’sangerisallthegreater

becauseheconsidersthewarapersonal

betrayal.SodomostOdessans,forwhom

Russia’slanguage,historyandculturearea

partoftheircity.“Russiansoldiersandof­

ficersmustseethatthisisnota military

operation,buta cynical,murderous,occu­

pationalwarofpunishment,withallthe

signsoffascismandNazism.”

Where Russia hoped Odessa might be a

weak  link  in  Ukraine’s  defence,  it  has

proved  a  bastion,  an  emblem  of  a  nation

that draws its strength from diversity, free

enterprise and freedom. While soldiers dig

trenches  and  fortify  defences,  the  city  is

stockpiling enough food, water and medi­

cine for two months. Mr Trukhanov is ask­

ing the army to de­mine some of the beach­

es so that people can swimin the summer.

It  is  not  just  his  Soviet  military  back­

ground that equips him for the job. In the

1990s  Italian  police  named  Mr  Trukhanov

as a major player in the Odessan mafia, re­

sponsible  for  training  gang  members  in

“hand­to­hand  combat  and  sniper  shoot­

ing with high­precision weapons”. In 2021

he  was  charged  with  organised  crime  in

Ukraine,  but  avoided  arrest  with  a  $1.1m

bail  payment.  He  makes  little  distinction

between  his  own  businesses  and  those  of

the city. (Mr Trukhanov denies all such al­

legations.)  But  what  seemed  an  obvious

conflict of interest before the war became

one  of  the  city’s  strengths  in  defending  it

against  the  invasion.  Old  vendettas  have

been set aside, at least for the moment.

Nika  Vikhniansky,  a  furniture  busi­

nessman  who  opposed  Mr  Trukhanov  in

elections, is now working side by side with

him managing volunteers and co­ordinat­

ing  humanitarian  aid.  “The  city  council

told us we were far more efficient than they

are,” he explains. Mr Vikhniansky’s grand­

father was a tank driver who fought the Na­

zis  during  the  second  worldwar. “Then

they were killing us as Jews,” hesays.“Now

they are killing us as Ukrainians.”n

ODESSA

A cosmopolitan city fights for normalityinthefaceofwar

UKRAINE

RUSSIA

BlackSea

ROMANIA

MOLDOVA

Tiraspol

Odessa

Crimea

Chisinau

Kyiv

Mykolaiv

Transnistria

Ukrainianterritory

annexedbyRussia

Area controlled by

Russian-backed

separatists before

Feb 24th

Do

bas

Snake Is.

200 km

Assessed as Russian-controlled, May 4th 222

Sources: Institute for the Study of War; AEI’s Critical Threats Project

Can’t keep a good city down