Themes by tag: Odesa

Since childhood, Sofiia had looked after her cousins and played with her neighbors’ young daughter. She often imagined welcoming a child deprived of parental care into her family one day. In 2020, when she turned 20, Sofiia applied to become a mentor for a child from an orphanage because she knew she wasn’t ready for adoption at such a young age.

After a year, she completed her training and received approval from the social services center on February 21, 2022. However, the full-scale war began shortly thereafter, putting her mentorship dreams on hold.

Two years later, she received a call offering her the chance to meet 12-year-old Alina from the Donetsk oblast. Alina has younger brothers who live with her in the orphanage, but there are no adults who maintain contact with her.

Today, Sofiia helps Alina socialize. Their meetings include practical lessons, such as shopping, budgeting, cooking, and using computer programs, as well as emotional support and help with schoolwork.

Journalists can arrange to speak with Sofiia Yudina online or in person in Kyiv or Odesa by prior agreement. Sofiia can also provide joint photos with Alina for publication. Please note that journalists will not be able to speak directly with Alina.

• children
• Kyiv
• Odesa

Leon, 26, has spent the past two years on hormone therapy, continuing a transition that he says has brought him closer to the person he has always known himself to be. From childhood, Leon felt like a boy, but as a teenager, he struggled with depression and lacked the language to explain his experience. It wasn’t until his early twenties that he first learned what it means to be transgender. 

His journey began with visits to a sexologist and later a psychiatrist, where he was diagnosed with transsexualism under the ICD-10-CM code F64.0. After that, he consulted an endocrinologist and started hormone therapy. The changes soon became clear, from the deepening of his voice to the broadening of his shoulders.

Leon chose to come out after a conversation with his father. His relationship with his mother, however, ended, and they no longer stay in touch. He later underwent a mastectomy, legally changed his surname and gender marker, and registered with a Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center as a potential conscript for Ukraine’s military. During his medical evaluation, he was deemed unfit for service under Article 18a, which cited schizophrenia.

Now, Leon says he finally feels free. He shares his experience through a personal blog, sharing his transition journey. 

For those interested, Leon is open to conversations both online and in person in Odesa, by prior arrangement.

• Odesa
• LGBT

Years ago, Ellie Balika first visited Ukraine as a tourist. The Brit fell in love with the country’s culture, cuisine, and people — so deeply that she eventually relocated permanently.

Later, in Norway, Ellie met a Ukrainian who became her husband. The couple settled in the Odesa oblast. Over seven years of marriage, they had three children, who understand English, Ukrainian, and russian, while Ellie and her husband communicate in Norwegian.

Ellie created a blog about Ukraine, initially for her friends, which later evolved into a full-fledged project for a wider audience.

You can contact Ellie Balika either online or offline in the Odesa oblast by prior agreement.

• culture
• women
• Odesa

Before russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast had a population of roughly 50,000. At the time, every third household subscribed to Ridne Misto, a local newspaper with a circulation of 6,000 and a staff of seven, led by editor Maksym Zabielia.

Zabielia recalls sending the newspaper to print on February 23, 2022. The next day, the Kharkiv-based printing house stopped responding to messages. Since then, Ridne Misto has relied on the Kramatorsk Printing House, which stepped in and kept the paper going.

In early summer 2024, the editorial team was forced to leave Myrnohrad due to a mandatory evacuation order. In August, the newspaper’s office was destroyed by enemy shelling. Today, the relocated newsroom operates with a staff of four. The paper is no longer distributed in Myrnohrad, but volunteers continue delivering it to hubs for internally displaced people. Despite the setbacks, the team has no plans to stop printing. Zabielia says they feel a deep sense of responsibility to their readers.

Zabielia is available for interviews both online and in person, by prior arrangement, in Odesa or Kyiv.

For reference: Myrnohrad, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The city lies approximately one kilometer from the front line. As of late 2024, about 3,000 civilians remained in the area.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv
• Odesa
• evacuation

Engineers at the Odesa-based design bureau Technary have developed a new tool to counter fiber-optic enemy drones that remain unaffected by electronic warfare systems. Their innovation, the CHAIKA-M project, code-named “Flyswatter”, is a virtual reality simulator designed to train military personnel to shoot down drones using assault rifles and shotguns. The system teaches soldiers to aim just ahead of the drone’s flight path to effectively neutralize the threat. Training with the simulator typically lasts between three and six weeks.

The engineering team is available for consultations both online and in person in Odesa, by prior arrangement.

• Odesa

The social project “Come Out and Play!” was launched in Bucha and Irpin in June 2022 in response to the challenges these towns faced after liberation. Its main goal was to help children recover emotionally after living under occupation. Free soccer training was organized for school children, and in November 2022, the NGO “Come Out and Play!” was officially registered.

The training sessions are designed for boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 12, including internally displaced children. Since its inception, over 600 children from Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Bucha, Irpin and Odesa have participated in the football program.

Today, the NGO “Come Out and Play!” also provides comprehensive psychosocial support to IDPs, children and people affected by the war. Services include individual and family counseling, group therapy, and art therapy. In addition, free legal counseling is provided, including assistance in recovering lost documents and applying for social benefits.

By prior arrangement, the project’s activities can be covered in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, and Mykolaiv. Psychosocial football training takes place in these cities, and in Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, art therapy and legal training sessions are also conducted.

• casualties
• children
• psychological support
• Dnipro
• Odesa
• Mykolaiv

On March 24, state inspectors examined the coastline near the 16th station of the Big Fountain (Velykoho Fontanu) in Odesa. They discovered areas of pollution in the form of lumps of fuel oil ranging from 2 to 15 cm in size. The oil slicks stretched for approximately 500 meters and in some places formed dense accumulations.

To ensure a rapid response, environmental specialists collected seawater samples for petroleum product analysis at the inspection laboratory. In addition, samples of the contaminant mixed with sand were sent to the Ukrainian Scientific Center of Marine Ecology for detailed laboratory research.

The pollution is likely to be the result of a large-scale environmental disaster caused by the sinking of the russian oil tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 in the Kerch Strait on December 15, 2024. At that time, over 4,000 tons of fuel oil spilled into the Black Sea, causing an estimated $14 billion in damage – the largest accident of its kind in the history of the Black Sea.

Earlier, similar fuel oil spills were recorded on the coast of the Lyman community, where more than 400 kg of petroleum products were collected, and in the village of Fontanka near Odesa.

Yulia Markhel, head of Let’s Do It Ukraine, commented: “This environmental disaster caused by russian tankers has already reached the Ukrainian coast. The pollution of our sea is a direct threat to the ecosystem, public health and tourism potential of the region”.

Journalists can interview representatives of Let’s Do It Ukraine (the largest youth eco-movement in Ukraine) in Kyiv, as well as environmental experts in Odesa, by prior arrangement.

• ecology
• Kyiv
• Odesa

On March 16, Ukraine will hold an annual event to honor the victims of the Mariupol Drama Theater tragedy. Mariupol residents and all those who remember are invited to light candles near theater buildings across the country in a tribute to those lost.

Commemorative gatherings will take place in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Zaporizhia (March 15), Ivano-Frankivsk, Kalush, Lviv, Kyiv, Kamianske, Kremenchuk, Rivne, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava, Kryvyi Rih, and Odesa.

Background: On March 16, 2022, russian forces dropped bombs on the Mariupol Drama Theater, despite the russian word for “children,” “ДЕТИ”(DETY), written in large, clearly visible white letters on the pavement outside the building. At the time, hundreds of Mariupol families were sheltering there, seeking refuge from relentless russian shelling. The attack claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians, including children.

The Mariupol Drama Theater has since become a harrowing symbol—of brutality and destruction, of Mariupol’s suffering, of Ukraine’s pain. It remains an enduring testament to a russian war crime the world must never forget.

• children
• dead
• russian crimes
• Dnipro
• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Odesa

With the start of the full-scale invasion, Anna Paikina left Odesa for abroad, fearing the possibility of enemy occupation. While in Spain, she switched from russian to Ukrainian and decided to return home in the spring of 2023. Anna wanted to promote Ukrainian culture in her hometown of Odesa.

First, she gathered like-minded people on social media who wanted to participate in traditional Ukrainian caroling. She then arranged with local restaurants and cafes to perform traditional Ukrainian songs.

This initiative soon grew into the “Legit” Ethnic Union. Many of its members are wives of soldiers waiting for their husbands to return from the front. In addition to promoting Ukrainian culture, “Legit” serves another purpose – helping its singers cope with their emotions and fears.

The band is now planning new performances in Odesa. Journalists can speak with Anna Paikina and the band members online or in person by prior arrangement.

• culture
• women
• Odesa

On February 26, 2022, Vasyl Vyrozub, rector of the Holy Trinity Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Odesa, was taken prisoner by russian forces. He was part of a mission to Zmiinyi (Snake) Island to recover the bodies of border guards who were initially presumed dead.

The Ukrainian vessel transporting Vasyl was seized by the russian cruiser Moskva, and he, along with two other military chaplains and a doctor, was captured. Vasyl spent 70 days in russian captivity, enduring torture. His captors subjected him and his fellow prisoners to relentless interrogations, struggling to comprehend why they had come to retrieve the fallen soldiers. The detainees were forced to sing the aggressor country’s anthem, kneel, and endure solitary confinement.

After his release, Vasyl was honored with the Memory of the Nation Award by Post Bellum, a Czech nonprofit dedicated to preserving the testimonies of war veterans and political prisoners.

Vasyl Vyrozub is available for interviews in Odesa, both online and in person, by prior arrangement.

Background: Fighting for Snake Island began on February 24, 2022, when russian forces seized the territory. Initially, reports stated that all 13 Ukrainian border guards defending the island had been killed. Later, Ukraine’s Border Guard Service indicated that the defenders might have been taken prisoner. On July 4, 2022, Snake Island returned to Ukrainian control.

• casualties
• prisoners
• religion
• russian crimes
• Odesa