A week in Odesa

This was the last photo I took before the bombing of Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration) Cathedral 2 days ago. A really good guitarist in City Gardens, about halfway between where we live and the cathedral. This is what a normal evening in Odesa looks like - people spending as much time possible outside in the warm evenings, before midnight curfew and air raid alerts, which have come like clockwork over the past week, around 2am.

Last night was no exception, but the alert covered all of Ukraine, other than the far western region. Odesa was spared attack last night - other places were not so lucky and there were more deaths.

We had our first good night's sleep for a week.

This morning we took the tram to the wholesale market, where we'll be buying vegetables and fruit to take to Kherson, as soon as the van is fixed, mabe tomorrow. We stocked up on the usual wonderful, fresh vegetables and fruit now in season - plums, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, figs and apricots - probably picked yesterday.

On the tram, four lads attempted to talk to Bob, having noted his T-shirt with the Ukrainian and UK flags. None of them had much English, apart from the universal language of football. Google translate on the phone was necessary for the subtleties. Such as, they were all from Kherson, on their way to military training in Odesa - 3 months and then they will be on the front line. They had to have been 18 years old but they didn't look that old - just kids, really, with youthful exuberance and no idea of what lies ahead for them. We wish them well.

I walked by the cathedral this evening. The east end, where the missile hit, looks close to collapsing, although work is going on inside and rubble is still being cleared out.

It has been a long week in Odesa and this war drags on, with no end in sight and many more deaths to come.