– This is not just about money from exports. This is psychologically very important for us, says the mayor of the city with the largest port, Volodymyr Novatskyj.
Although times are difficult, people go to work, almost as normal.
NRK meets Mayor Novatskyj in his modern office in the town of Pivdenne, an hour’s drive northeast of Odesa in southern Ukraine.
Until recently, the town with around 35,000 inhabitants was called Juzjne.
After almost two years of war, people in large parts of Ukraine are trying to live as normal a life as possible.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
But because this is a Russian name for what can be translated as southern, it will now be given a corresponding Ukrainian name, Pivdenne.
Here lies both Ukraine’s largest deep-water wharf, but also an enormous chemical factory for the production of ammonia, among other things.
– When Russia attacked us on 24 February 2022, all the ports here on the Black Sea were blocked, says Volodymyr Novatskyj.
The port of Pivdenne/Juzjne is the largest in Ukraine. This photo is from 2008.
Foto: Minami Himemiya
Ukraine has sunk many Russian warships
For him, who himself is Russian-speaking with many friends and family in Russia, it was completely incomprehensible that Russian President Vladimir Putin could go so far as to send rockets and bombs against them.
But to the surprise of many, Ukraine, well supported by other European countries, has fought back against what looked like seemingly invincible Russian military supremacy in the Black Sea.
It began with the sinking of the cruiser “Moskva”, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in April 2022.
And this week, the Ukrainian intelligence service was able to publish images in which they attack and sink the large landing craft “Cæsar Kunikov” off the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Own corridor along the coast
The Odesa region and the important ports here were one of the targets of the Russian attack in the spring of 2022.
But the Ukrainian forces managed to stop the Russians on the outskirts of the city of Mykolaiv and later drove them back across the Dnipro River.
And now Ukraine has created its own shipping corridor along the coast down towards Romania and Bulgaria.
So far, Russia seems to be letting the cargo ships sail in peace here.
At the mayor’s office in Pivdenne/Juzjne there are pictures showing some of the deep-water quays in the town.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
Possibly because they do not have the capacity to attack them, or that there is some kind of tacit agreement that they will be allowed to sail in peace if Ukraine does not attack the traffic to and from Russian ports in the east of the Black Sea.
– But we have felt the war in the form of rocket attacks, says mayor Volodymyr Novatskyj. The most dramatic was then a cargo ship was hit by a rocket while it was in the process of docking on November 8 last year.
The pilot on board was killed and several Filipino sailors injured in the attack.
But Ukraine has not been intimidated, and exports of grain and other products, among other things, are now steadily increasing.
When NRK visited Pivdenne this week, we could see hundreds of trucks and trailers in the harbor area.
There was also a lot of activity in the city of Odesa itself, even though the passenger terminal in the center of the port has been partially destroyed by Russian attacks.
The port of Odesa. The passenger terminal and an administration building were damaged in a Russian attack in September 2023.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
The flight alarm goes off often
Mayor Novatskyj in Pivdenne is lucky. With income from the traffic across the harbour, Pivdenne is, according to the conditions, a prosperous town.
But the roughly 35,000 inhabitants here live in a country at war, and it is felt every single day.
Pivdenne/Juzjne is a modern city and the most important port along the Ukrainian Black Sea coast.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
– The flight alarm often goes off several times a day. When the parents are then at work in the factories or in the port, and do not know how the children are doing, it is of course very difficult, says Volodymyr Novatskyj.
– But our city is alive. The nurseries are open, as are the schools. And in the large sports hall that you see across the street there is full activity from morning to night, says mayor Novatskyj proudly.
Straight from the funeral of a fallen soldier
Directly opposite the city administration in Pivdenne/Juzjne, a provisional memorial exhibition has been created for the 48 boys and men from the city who lost their lives in the fight against the Russian aggression.
Artjem Sevatejev is one of the soldiers from Pivdenne/Juzjne who has fallen in the war against Russia.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
Some already fell just days after Russia launched a major offensive on 24 February 2022. But many have lost their lives in connection with the liberation of Kherson in the autumn of the same year, and in the battles for the cities of Bakhmut and now Avdijivka in Donbas.
And right now, weekly soldiers come home in coffins to the small coastal town by the Black Sea.
– Just before I met you, I was at the last funeral, says Mayor Novatskyj, as he shows us around and tells us that he knows many of the dead soldiers depicted on the posters.
Mayor of Pivdenne/Juzjne together with NRK’s Morten Jentoft between the images of fallen soldiers in the war against Russia.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
– And your two sons are also at the front now?
– Yes, they have volunteered. I just have to pray to God that they are doing well, says mayor Volodymyr Novatskyj, who is nevertheless optimistic and believes that Ukraine will emerge stronger from the war. Once it’s over.
The flag at half-mast above the municipal hall in Pivdenne/Juzjne, in connection with the burial of a soldier who was killed in the war against Russia.
Photo: Lokman Ghorbani/NRK
2024-02-18 22:03:02
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