Ukraine: Why Russia’s Move Does Not Explain the Targeting of Odesa’s Grandeur – News18

The Russians are attacking some of the best the Soviets built. Just across from Crimea to the north of the Black Sea, Odesa was much the grand retreat adopted by the politburo elite, and it shows.

Adopted, not built. Odessa’s grandest predates the dreary rectangles that Communist bosses brought upon the old Soviet Union. The port city presents a remarkable picture of some of the best of Mediterranean and European influences, from Italy particularly. It is Odesa’s best that the Russians have abruptly set out to demolish with renewed determination.

Kharkiv and Kherson were bombed beyond recognition since the start of the war. Odesa got away relatively lightly in relation to those. Partly if not primarily because it does not lie within easy shelling range of Russian artillery. But Odesa has always been vulnerable to missiles coming across the Black Sea, on which Ukrainian defence is poor. In the lethal company of drones, daily attacks have begun to destroy the best of Odesa.

Odesa has no doubt been bombed since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Enough destruction came to scar the city since then. Enough for the city centre to be declared a World Heritage site in January of this year in hope no doubt that it might deter Russians from aiming missiles at it. Such effect may have had erased over the past several days.

It began with the end of the grain deal on July 17 that had been agreed upon between Russia and Ukraine brokered by Turkey and the UN to set up a naval corridor for export of grain from Ukraine. Over a year that arrangement saw 33 million tonnes of grain through. But Russia began to choke that flow towards the end, letting just two ships a day through on average in place of the ten a day earlier, before ending the arrangement altogether.

Odessa and adjoining ports have been the principal warm water outlet for produce from Ukraine, long the bread basket of Europe. The Russians are now targeting both Odessa’s ports and its iconic landmarks. The new Russian plan aims to choke Ukrainian produce but also to target magnificence that was once owned as Soviet in overwhelmingly Russian hands. The Opera Theatre, the Potemkin Stairs, so much more, is faced with danger of destruction.

The targeting of sea and river ports aims to block any trickle of grain exports still flowing out, fractional as it may be relative to volumes under the grain deal, and far more expensive. Russia is pushing its own grain exports after a bumper harvest. The clear calculation is that hunger and higher prices elsewhere will drive much of the world to defy sanctions to buy Russian. It’s the sort of move you almost might expect in a war, given the cynicism it brings. But this does not explain the targeting of Odesa’s grandeur.

The Russians are in a punishing mood, now in Odesa. The unique Transfiguration Cathedral is Odessa’s largest church building, stands badly damaged already. The historic church building was destroyed by the Soviets in 1936 but rebuilt by Ukraine after independence. The Russians have destroyed several hundred church buildings of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine that stands apart from the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church has blessed Putin’s war.

The famous House of Scientists and the Zhvanetskyi Boulevard have also been damaged. Odessa fears worse. Not many in Ukraine will want to talk peace after more and more of this destruction.