“Each person gathered in this room talked to ten acquaintances in Russia. We called and told them what the Russian army is doing with Ukraine,” says Vadim Tereschuk, a councilor in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
“One of the responses I got from a former classmate was that we Ukrainians ‘were shit in Russia’s shoes’. And it was a very polite person who told me that!”
Tereschuk continues: “The Russians say: ‘We have to defend our country.’ I reply that Putin’s Russia is not theirs, that they are slaves of the Putin regime. dominates. Putin is a dictator who is sending his slaves to hell”.
On Saturday afternoon (5), the Odessa city council, under the leadership of Mayor Gennadi Trukhanov, convened a meeting. The politicians had to meet in an office that used to be a bank, now abandoned. The mighty town hall was too dangerous for them to use.
A few kilometers away, on the Black Sea, the Russian war fleet awaits an order to attack Odessa, the last city in the south of the country still under full control of the Ukrainian government.
“Reports we have received from the Ukrainian military show that Russian warships pass by the coast all the time. It is obvious that they are preparing for a landing soon,” says Trukhanov.
“If we lose this part of the Black Sea, we will be locked in without access to the sea. The Russian occupation of Odessa would be a disaster for the entire Ukrainian economy. It is not just about Odessa, there are seven important ports”, says the mayor.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a new video that Russian forces are preparing to bomb Odessa.
Much of Ukraine’s wheat exports leave the country through the region’s ports – Ukraine and Russia together account for 25% of world wheat exports.
“Is Putin willing to destroy Odessa to achieve his goals?” I ask the mayor.
“I prefer not to believe it, but when I see what has happened in cities like Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mikolaiv and Kherson, I have no doubt that Putin is willing to use all methods to achieve his goals. ruins”, says Trukhanov.
According to the Chernihiv region administration, Russian forces carried out a relentless missile attack on the industrial city last Thursday (3). A residential area in the city center was hit, causing dozens of civilian casualties. An oil deposit was set on fire.
At almost the same time as the Odessa council meeting began, two Russian fighter jets were shot down by the Ukrainian air force, according to the region’s military command.
“The bloody war continues, and the enemy is getting weaker every day. But the Russians are actively using the Air Force against us. Closing the airspace is what can make the difference,” Trukhanov told the Norwegian newspaper DN.
“I want to ask all the mayors of our sister cities, responsible for the safety of the population of their cities, to help us convince the leaders of their countries to close the airspace over Ukraine. Only this can save Odessa,” he says. .
As council members sign the document with the request for help addressed to all the sister cities, one of the councilors starts to cry.
The appeal of Odessa councilors is an echo of the Second World War. The idea of sister cities emerged at that time to forge ties between conflict-torn regions.
After the bombing of Coventry in 1940, more than 800 women from the British city embroidered their names and the phrase “a little help is better than great sympathy” on a canvas and sent it, with a sum of money, to the victims of the Battle of Coventry. Stalingrad. In 1944, Coventry and Stalingrad (now Volgograd) formalized cooperation agreements. Then others came.
After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, several European cities broke their friendship agreements with cities in Russia.
“We see that people have forgotten the lesson of the Second World War: it is no use negotiating with a dictator. Russia is incapable of living with a free country as a neighbor, it is against the dictator’s mentality. We have good economic growth and we are seen as a threat. Is that why they want to kill us?” says Trukhanov.
“We must try all possibilities,” says councilor Vadim Tereschuk, who is also a lawyer, about the appeal.
The entrance to the decommissioned bank, where the politicians met, is protected by a 1 m high barricade of sandbags. Outside, a small group of soldiers armed with machine guns follows every movement in the surroundings.
“I don’t know what will happen to Ukraine, but I’m sure that in three years, Russia will not exist as we know it. Russia will destroy itself. close everything. They cannot isolate everyone from the truth”, says the councilor.
