Tetyana Khlapova’s hand shook as she recorded the sinking. The destroyed Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa In her cell phone, she cursed Russia, her homeland.
Khlapova grew up in Ukraine and always dreamed of living in the seaside town. But not like the war refugee she has become.
in just one week, Russia has Dozens of missiles and drones were launched in the Odessa region. None impressed as much as the one that destroyed the cathedral, which is at the heart of the city’s notoriously romantic history and its deep roots in Ukrainian and Russian culture.
I am a refugee from Kharkiv. I endured that hell and came to sunny Odessa, The pearl, the heart of Ukraine, said Khlabova, who has lived in the country for 40 of her 50 years.
She still has a scar on her neck from the third day of the war, when her apartment was hit. On the fourth day I fled to Odessa.
Now, she’s making a quick trip home to Kharkiv to pick up winter clothes so she can wait out the war in Ireland, “because here we’re not protected for a second, in any city.”
“At any moment, You can only hit “Your whole body will be shattered”, she said. “After the war is over – and I think Ukraine will defeat this filth, these vampires – I’m going home. I’ll be back anyway.”
Since Ukraine gained its independence from Moscow in 1991, Odessa has seen itself differently from the country’s other major cities because of its long and conflicted history and prospects that extend far beyond its borders.
Its ports were key to a deal last year that allowed Ukraine and Russia to ship their grain to the rest of the world. Its Orthodox cathedral belongs to the Patriarchate of Moscow. Its population speaks mainly Russian. And – at least until the Kremlin illegally annexed neighboring Crimea in 2014 – its beaches were beloved by Russian tourists.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS