“If they try to enter from the beach, we will warmly welcome them.”
In a black balaclava and beige camouflage uniform, a tall, thin Ukrainian soldier guarded the street leading to the famous Odessa Opera House. The upright posture made him look even taller, and the machine gun in his long arms looked more like a toy. 74 km away, a Russian fleet of warships awaits orders to land on the coast of Ukraine’s main port city.
Most of the streets of central Odessa are clogged with barricades of sandbags, cinder blocks and steel frames made from three pieces of train tracks welded together in a star shape.
Even tables from a McDonald’s store were placed in the middle of the city’s main avenue, serving as an obstacle between Ukrainian army soldiers, neo-Nazi militias with machine guns and young arsonists ready to try to surprise the occupation forces with bottles of Molotov cocktails.
The feeling is one of apprehension, and photographers are not welcome, as Russians can obtain information through images shared online. “This street proves that we are entering World War III,” says Vitali Stefanovic, a volunteer at the donation center. “You can Google what it was like in WWII, these barricades were in the same place they are today. But at that time there was no internet, so it was safe for the government to publish these images.”
Facing the enemy, the beach in central Odessa has been mined, and a tank can be seen at the top of the famous Potemkin staircase, the setting for Sergei Eisenstein’s classic “Battleship Potemkin”.
“Many soldiers have died on this beach before, and an invasion here will be a suicide operation for the Russians,” says soldier Volodomir, 31, a veteran of the front in the Donbass region. A single small Ukrainian coast guard ship patrols a kilometer from the city’s beach, as the US has warned Russian forces could land in Odessa as early as Thursday.
The cargo ship Helt, owned by an Estonian transport company, sank on Thursday after being hit, according to Ukrainian officials. It was probably attacked underwater. According to Estonian state channel ERR, there are rumors that the vessel was used as a shield by Russian forces.
Located in the southwest of the country, on the shores of the Black Sea, Odessa is one of the largest Ukrainian cities and the most important port municipality in the country. If Russia takes it, the defeat will be a great strategic, economic and military loss for Ukraine. Much of the country’s commercial traffic passes through Odessa and nearby areas, and it is in the city that the Ukrainian Navy maintains its main base.
Russian forces try to control more and more cities in Ukraine. Kherson, located on the other side of the bay where Odessa is located, was completely taken by the Russian army on Wednesday (2).
The local mayor urged the Russians not to fire on the city’s population, advising residents to strictly follow the new rules imposed by the occupation forces, including respecting the curfew and not forming groups of more than two people on the streets.
Several local and international media reported attacks in the city of Mariupol. Mayor Vadim Boichenko says Russian forces want to isolate the city, leaving it without garbage collection, heating, water and transport.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that attacks on Ukraine will continue. “Russia will continue its military operation in Ukraine until the end,” he said in an interview with Russian TV, according to Reuters news agency.
