Thursday, March 28

Odesa is confined for 24 hours due to the “threat of attack” on the anniversary of its liberation from Nazi occupation


They walked slowly with one or several flowers in their hands. They slowed their journey for a few seconds and, in silence, placed the bouquet on the monument that commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of the city of Odessa from Nazi occupation. It happened on April 10, 1944, but dozens of inhabitants of the Ukrainian region, who have been fortified for more than a month in the face of a possible intensification of Russian attacks in the area, have paid homage to it a day earlier. They can’t do it this Sunday.

On April 10, Odessa Liberation Day, the inhabitants of the region are prohibited from leaving their homes. During the night of this Saturday, the anti-aircraft alarm, which often resounds throughout the city and to which few pay little attention, seemed to mark the beginning of the curfew decreed from 9:00 p.m. on Friday until 6:00 a.m. next Monday. A little more than 24 hours of confinement with the aim of protecting the population from “the threat of a missile attack” during the outstanding date.

“Given the events that occurred in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, where the rocket attack on the station killed 50 people and injured 98, in Odessa on April 10, 2022, there is a threat of a missile attack,” he reported. this Friday a statement from the governor of the region.

more fear

The announcement came after a difficult week for the southern Ukrainian city, strategic for the Kremlin due to its location on the Black Sea, its history and its strong cultural connections with Russia. If last Sunday an attack against a refinery in the region put the population on alert, who observed several visible columns of smoke in different parts of the city, different Odesan residents saw a missile fly over their heads in line on Friday afternoon straight, according to the testimony of several citizens collected by elDiario.es. Seconds later, they heard the detonation at a greater distance, in a certain location that the Ukrainian authorities have not yet confirmed.

the constants check points, the barricades formed by sandbags and the hedgehogs and anti-tank spikes remind us that we are in a country at war. The population continues its life with a certain normality and, although many shops are still closed, many restaurants and cafes remain open during restricted hours.

But the warning of a possible attack on April 10 has increased tension among a population that is beginning to exhaust itself from living “from day to day”. “Everything seems calm now, but who knows what will happen tomorrow,” says a septuagenarian woman as she looks up at the sky.



Vitali, dressed in an “Odessa” T-shirt, approaches the platform that raises the monument in memory of the day the Red Army expelled the Nazis after an operation that lasted several months, holding on to his parents. The base of the obelisk is already covered in flowers, most of them adorned with a yellow and blue bow.

“We are grateful to the liberators of our city. We love our city and, thanks to them, the Nazis are gone… but we celebrate this day very worried, because we fear that there may be a bombing in Odessa once again”, says the 44-year-old man. “This week we have felt and seen the missiles. We are worried about ourselves, but also about our city.”

His mother, Lidia, was moved in front of the monument. This April 10, is also her birthday. “Tomorrow I turn 75, I was born after the liberation, but this day is very special for me. We always come together. We are told that the situation in Odessa is not very safe. My fear, always, is the sky,” she said this Saturday.

Shortly after, a female member of the Territorial Defense Guard interrupts the conversation to alert the family that they have been standing at the same point for longer than necessary. “In a space as open as this, it can be dangerous.”



“Am I a Nazi?”

Svitlana Holopoba covers her head with a typical Soviet hat, with a hammer and sickle on the front, and wears a jacket full of decorations. She is 84 years old and is one of the victims of those months of Nazi occupation. On April 10, 1944, she was only seven years old. She remembers that it rained a lot.

Before that, he spent more than a year with his parents in a cell on death row. She touches her neck and head to describe the tortures received by her parents, observed when she was a child. Holopoba became a hostage of the Romanian army in an orphanage in Belyaevka, where there is a water pumping station. A Soviet soldier found her, according to her testimony. She gave him a hat, he has told on other occasions.



On February 24, he was at home when he learned of the start of the war. “Suddenly, all the memories of when I was a child came back to me. It hurts like it was back then. But I am also glad that we are all together, as friends, defending Odessa. I am proud of my city.” Holopoba is a regular in every anti-fascist celebration, but this year it is special and perhaps even more painful.

She suffers for the children who, like her, now have to live again the brutality of a conflict. She is also outraged when she hears one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine. The supposed “denacification” of the country.

The old woman raises the tone of her voice: “Am I a Nazi? Do you see me looking like a Nazi?

“Worries every minute”

He comes alone, tries to be discreet, but several neighbors stop him to say hello. This is Oleksandr Ivanitsky, a member of the City Council of the Odessa region. He approaches the monument with a bouquet of red carnations. “We have worries every minute, every day, every hour, that something might happen. We also know that we have to walk facing forward, but also upwards. Because a missile can fall on us from above.”



The usual concerts organized in the square on April 10 will be replaced by silence and vigilance by the Ukrainian troops and the Territorial Defense Guard. “We live each day according to the situation”, says the authority, “but we have to do everything possible to ensure the protection of our population in Odessa. We think that staying at home is the best thing for our security: because we cannot discover the plans of the aggressor, of the enemy. No one would believe that someone could bomb a train station. I can’t understand what they do. Normally, in this square or in other parts of the city, many people gather to celebrate the liberation and we want to prevent anything from happening”.

In a neighborhood located about a 20-minute drive from the center of Odessa, Dasha laments the worsening situation in the city. “Now everything is terrifying,” says the young woman through Whatsapp. This Sunday she was going to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday, one day before she was admitted to the hospital. “Now we have to stay at home and we don’t know when she will be able to leave the hospital… It’s very sad,” says the young woman, who has spent the last few weeks in Chisinau supporting Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the Moldovan capital. She had been looking forward to returning home for days, but the day after she arrived, she woke up to the news of the impact of a Russian missile on the region’s refinery.



Next to a supermarket, located next to the Odessa cathedral, dozens of inhabitants finalized their purchases before the day of mandatory confinement. With a bag in their hands, Irina and Alisa walked the dogs a couple of hours before the start of curfew. “We are worried. As it is the day of the liberation of our city, there is danger and the possibility of missile bombardment”, say the women, who have decided to remain in their city. They would only leave the country, they say, in the event of a Russian siege.

The curfew imposed by the Ukrainian authorities also prevents going out to buy food. “We have bought some food. Tomorrow we just have to wait for something. I don’t know what…” Alisa says. She works in the hotel business, but since the beginning of the war she has barely been able to work. They have become accustomed to this month and a half of tense calm in Odessa, where its population has been preparing since the beginning of the conflict for a Russian attack by land, sea and air that has never taken place, with the land front still stalled in the surroundings from the region of the southern city of Mikolaiv. “We are afraid. We live from day to day, but we are tired of living from day to day. We can’t plan anything. We cannot think about the future. Any. Just wake up, see that everything is fine at the time, and move on.”



www.eldiario.es