Home News Odessa: Russian-speaking, yes. But today, very Ukrainian.

Odessa: Russian-speaking, yes. But today, very Ukrainian.

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As invading Russian forces move closer to the Russian-speaking Ukrainian port of Odessa, they are forging what residents describe as unprecedented, pro-Ukrainian unity. It’s being expressed in an outpouring of volunteering to bolster the city’s defenses and deliver mutual aid.

With a few friends, Inga Kordynovsk, a lawyer, started the Humanitarian Volunteer Center in a hip food court in central Odessa. Amid now-closed restaurants, some 90 volunteers manage an ever-growing pile of donations that are being sent to needy people and to civilian territorial defense units.

Why We Wrote This

Cosmopolitan Odessa is often deemed among the most “pro-Russian” cities in Ukraine. But the war’s brutality has changed minds, surprising many with the level of community and shared purpose it created.

“The first day, we were afraid. The next day we were angry, because our lives were broken by this one crazy man. But on the third day, we said, ‘We will do something.’ … Now I don’t know anybody who says, ‘We want to be Russian.’”

At the Odessa Yacht Club, scores of volunteers – men, women, even children – fill sandbags to protect municipal buildings and landmarks, forming human chains to load trucks.

“People are united,” says Albert Kabakov, head of the yacht club. “I am sure, after the victory, our society will be completely different.”

“All of us here are Ukrainians, will speak Ukrainian, and definitely this will enhance our Ukrainian identity,” he says. “It became a shame for us to speak Russian.”

ODESSA, Ukraine

With quiet determination, in a hidden workshop in the strategic southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, Yevhen dons a welder’s helmet and lays a bead of molten metal to join lengths of construction girders.

He is building anti-tank barriers to help stop a Russian assault that could come at any moment against this cosmopolitan hub, renowned for its classical architecture and often deemed among the most “pro-Russian” cities in Ukraine.

In normal times, the 28-year-old welder and guitarist, with a hipster beard and indie band, would be thinking about his next live gig.

Why We Wrote This

Cosmopolitan Odessa is often deemed among the most “pro-Russian” cities in Ukraine. But the war’s brutality has changed minds, surprising many with the level of community and shared purpose it created.

But as the multipronged Russian invasion moves ever closer to this Black Sea port, Yevhen is an example of how the brutality of Moscow’s war has changed minds here, and forged what residents describe as unprecedented, pro-Ukrainian unity.

Yevhen knows, because the native Russian speaker says his own views have changed, from being “neutral” on Russia to being ardently pro-Ukrainian. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that captured Russian military plans led him to expect Odessa to be bombed.

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

Ukrainian civilians undergo basic military training at a volunteer center in a state education institution, before an expected Russian assault on Odessa, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. The civilian volunteers are trained by former, reservist, and veteran Ukrainian officers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that among his reasons for invading Ukraine is to “liberate” Russian speakers from “genocide” at the hands of Ukrainian-speaking “Nazis” – a claim widely scorned in this city, despite the preponderance of native Russian speakers.

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