Odessa: In Putin's Sights with his new General Dvornikov, the Butcher of Syria

Odessa is preparing for RU attacks. Intel says it's coming as Putin's eastern front ramps up. 

I think Odessa holds a special place in Putin's twisted mind.  And it is now in imminent danger of his brutality. A massive naval squadron sits in the Black Sea blockading the beautiful port city, awaiting Putin's word to unload their lethal weapons.  

The apocalyptic scenes uncovered in Bucha, in Chernigov, Kherson, Mariupol, war crimes that have horrified the world, will play out in Odessa in time, unless the Western allies help Ukraine repel them.  

Putin's paved the way to Odessa with his earlier assaults on southern Ukrainian cities. Today, the world awaits his campaign to annihilate the Donbas.  His new general, Alexander Dvornikov, known as the Butcher of Syria for his unspeakable war crimes there, for his "utter disregard for the laws of war," is more than ready to carry out Putin's orders. An 8-mile holocaust convoy loaded with weapons is headed to Sloviansk, the platform for Putin's eastern and southern campaign. Train stations filled with terrified refugees will be easy targets everywhere, as will all evacuation routes, apartment buildings and other civilian targets. Zelenskyi warns this offensive will be worse than World War II. This has to be a red line for NATO and the western alliance. 

Odessa is the Ukrainian city created by Catherine the Great in the 1790s, with a lustful eye for dominion over all of Ukraine, then the bread basket of Europe.  She also ordered the creation of Dnipro, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Sevastopol on Crimea. 

Putin has invaded all of them, destroyed most of them, all front lines to the Black Sea and to the critical seaport of Odessa.  

April 4, 2022, multiple artillery attacks on Kherson & Mykolaiv, the southern towns around the Black Sea, along the front to Odessa, as you can see on this map. Mariupol has been totally 
destroyed. Its Mayor says it looks like Auschwitz. Pres. Zelenskyi says tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.  
.

Catherine presented herself as an "Enlightened" autocrat who was guided by the rule of law but at the same time she annexed much of Ukraine through wars with the Ottoman Empire and the partition of Poland, and she brutally suppressed the largest peasant rebellion in Russian history (wikipedia).  This chapter of Russia's history of empire is part of the complex and tortured history of Ukraine, long a political football in that part of the world. That tortured history is true as well for the other former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and most of eastern Europe.  Historian Timothy Snyder calls them "The Bloodlands."   

Odessa in spite of its origins grew to become one of the most vibrant multicultural cities in the 19th century, a free port that attracted wealthy merchants and traders and people from around the region and the world.  Odessa was multinational, multi-linqual and multiethnic. It was a vibrant center of Jewish life.  I am amazed at how many friends tell me their grandparents, their ancestors, came from Odessa. 

The iconic Robert Sears' Guide to the Russian Empire, first published in 1855, described Odessa this way: “There is perhaps no town in the world in which so many different tongues may be heard as in the streets and coffeehouses of Odessa, the motley population consisting of Russians, Tartars, Greeks, Jews, Poles, Italians, Germans, French, etc.”​  Sadly, World Wars I and II changed that, and the Jewish population was decimated. 

Today, thankfully, Odessa feels a lot more like it must have been in the 19th century than what it became during the 20th century. It's a mix of nationalities with a  tolerant upbeat spirit. It is noted for its multicultural cuisine, joie de vivre, sense of humor, resourcefulness. 

Peace Corps volunteers loved meeting in Odessa, loved the cafes, the Turkish street vendors, the Potemkin steps and port, the beautiful architecture, the people most of all. It's like a European city, easy to enjoy, easy to  embrace. A friend I made at Camp Sosnovy, a summer camp for kids of all ages from all over Lugansk oblast, the head counselor Iryna, said I should move there. I could stay at her apartment. I was tempted. I must say I think about those wonderful kids, wonder what's happened to them. 

Putin shares Catherine's lust for Ukraine, but he means to take it by obliterating it. 

Why? Because Ukraine no longer identifies with Russia, the Russian empire, or the Soviet Union. Ukraine has become fiercely independent, fiercely Ukrainian in its soul and spirit.   

Odessa Opera House. I can't remember the
Opera we saw, but oh I remember the
stunning beauty.

Moreover, Odessa, like Mariupol, like Kherson, Severodonetsk, Trostyanets, resisted Russian advances after Putin invaded and occupied Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014/2015. Putin, in his diabolical revenge, has destroyed these cities, and he wants to do the same to Odessa. If he can't have it, nobody can. His offensive is underway from the East.  

The Generals say Putin's escalation in the greater Donbas region will be "reminiscent of World War II." Russia bombed a train station in Karmatorsk, not far from Lugansk city, not far from where I served with the Peace Corps.  Yesterday another train station was hit. Civilian corridors, Escape routes. All targets. Putin's new commander will gladly kill as many civilians as possible. He's a red flag of disaster, of war crimes. What more does the US and the West need to see before it gives Ukraine everything it needs to stop Putin right here and now?

Odessa, stunning Odessa, will stay in Putin's sights, his grand prize if he is not stopped in the Donbas.  Odessa is preparing, but will it be enough? 

Odessa collage.

 

Preparing for the worst. Sandbags around the Opera House.
 Getty image/Scott Peterson

The Odessa Food Market on Richelievska, once a hipster paradise ablaze with neon signs advertising oysters and sparkling wine, welcoming one and all, is now a logistical hub for the war effort. Volunteers in orange and yellow jackets sort and organize donations onto shelves, ready to be taken to the front lines. The city stands, but it is watchful. "Time is of the essence," they say. Russians have already launched attacks on nearby oil tanks and suburbs from the air. That massive fleet in the Black Sea, ominous, threatening, is aimed directly at the city.  Odessans know what's coming. 

The US, NATO, the Western alliance know what's coming, too.  Unless Putin is stopped in the Donbas region on his way South around the Black Sea, the world will witness another apocalyptic disaster.   That it will be Odessa to fall is too much to bear. 

Sources:

1.  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-catherine-great-invaded-crimea-and-put-rest-world-edge-180949969/ "Nearly 250 years ago, Catherine II played a similar hand when she attempted to impress the West while ruthlessly enforcing her authority over Russia & the surrounding region." 

2. https://contestedhistories.org/resources/case-studies/catherine-the-great-monument-in-odessa/

3.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great.  "Catherine, who admired Peter the Great, aimed to modernize Russia along Western European lines, but military consription and the economy continued to depend on serfdom, one of the chief reasons for the Pugachev Rebellion of Cossacks".        

4. https://theconversation.com/how-catherine-the-great-may-have-inspired-putins-ukraine-invasion-178007

5. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/odessa-ukrainian-port-inspired-big-dreams  "Catherine's Black Sea port quickly emerged as a randy mix of nationalities and cultures.".

6.  https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/03/07/odessa-finds-its-ukrainian-identity-ahead-of-a-russian-advance  

7.  https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3448166-russian-military-abducts-tortures-people-in-kherson-region.html war crimes in Kherson, torture and detainments.

8.  https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3448765-ten-killed-by-cluster-munitions-in-mykolaiv.htmlMykoliav attacked April 4, 2022, civilians, schools, a hospital. More horrendous war crimes.

9.  https://scalar.usc.edu/works/odessa/a-brief-history-of-odessa by Isabella Buzsynski