Will Ukraine Survive?
Stories collected from Ukraine. From Lviv to Kyiv. Dnipro to Odesa.
THE MAYOR OF ODESA, UKRAINE
I was invited to interview the Mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov.
I asked if he felt safe walking in the streets of his town.
“Of course, somewhere in my heart I’m worried. But I don’t have the moral right to show it in public today. So I walk in the park every morning with my dog, unguarded, saying hello to people. Today, for example, I was seen in the park. They see me every morning. If our mayor is walking his dog in the park, they say, then we’ll be fine.”
“UNCLE YURA”, SPEC. OPS.
Marty Ollstein interviewing Ukrainian Special Ops officer “Uncle Yura” (his ‘call sign’) in front of a destroyed apartment building in Siversk, Ukraine, only a few miles from the Eastern Front. He described the devastation from a recent Russian attack.
“You saw it with your own eyes…there is no kindergarten there anymore. It must have been a cruise missile because there was a crater. It’s just horrible. They immediately hit the kindergartens and schools.”
ON A BUS IN ODESA, UKRAINE
A couple comforts each other and carry on with their lives in the midst of the war.
Air raid sirens and bombs are a common occurrence.
REFUGEE SHELTER IN DNIPRO
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Refugees from the battle fronts, are welcomed and cared for in shelters set up throughout the country. Currently, there are at least 4 million IDPs living in Ukraine. 7 million refugees have left their country.
Just Got Very Real
At a cafe in central Lviv, Rynok Square – the sirens went off. Most people in the and on the street casually went downstairs to the basement bar. Then the lights went out. 5 missiles hit the city above us.
THE BORDER
The Odesa ‘Potemkin’ Steps
A symbol for the fight against injustice. These are the legendary Odesa Steps on which the “Battleship Potemkin” was shot, depicting Russian soldiers slaughtering Ukrainian civilians.
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers.
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
The Russian Tsar’s Cossacks appear at the head of the steps, marching down, slaughtering the people below – men, women, and children, the citizens of Odesa caught in the unprovoked attack by the soldiers.
Schmoozing at Shul in Kyiv
Only a few people showed up, but it was sweet, warm, and familiar. And a dramatic contrast to the heartbreak I’ve been shooting all day. Shabbat shalom!
