“Welcome to the hero city of Odessa”, spelled in huge characters on the roof of the train station, is pretty much the first thing one sees after arriving to the city, a reference to its resistance against the German invading forces during the Second World War. It's a hot August day, and the station is bustling with orderly lines of tourists carrying sun umbrellas and plastic bags. The speaker announces an incoming train from Kharkov, a city in the east of the country just a few kilometers from the front lines of the armed conflict that for more than a year has been ravaging the eastern region of the Donbass. Apart from a few soldiers in uniform here and there, no sign of the conflict can be seen aside from a television screen projecting calls to join the army, which most people ignore as they carry their luggage or look for some shade from the scorching sun. A huge Ukrainian flag flutters in the summer heat, yet only Russian can be heard in the train station.
Odessa, ukrainian summer in a russian city
Odessa, ukrainian summer in a russian city
“Welcome to the hero city of Odessa”, spelled in huge characters on the roof of the train station, is pretty much the first thing one sees after arriving to the city, a reference to its resistance against the German invading forces during the Second World War. It's a hot August day, and the station is bustling with orderly lines of tourists carrying sun umbrellas and plastic bags. The speaker announces an incoming train from Kharkov, a city in the east of the country just a few kilometers from the front lines of the armed conflict that for more than a year has been ravaging the eastern region of the Donbass. Apart from a few soldiers in uniform here and there, no sign of the conflict can be seen aside from a television screen projecting calls to join the army, which most people ignore as they carry their luggage or look for some shade from the scorching sun. A huge Ukrainian flag flutters in the summer heat, yet only Russian can be heard in the train station.
