Greetings from Odesa, Ukraine, where a Black Sea beach offers respite from war

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Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares snapshots of moments from their lives and work around the world.

Even last Wednesday afternoon — a workday — Odesa’s Lanzheron beach was packed. A toddler in a ballerina swimsuit clung to an inflatable unicorn. A man backstroked near two swans gliding on the waves. A woman meditated in the sun. In Ukraine’s legendary port city, the salty breeze carried the splashing and laughter of a carefree summer.

Ukraine has been defending itself from a full-scale Russian invasion for three-and-a-half years. With Russia attacking Ukrainian cities, including Odesa, nearly every night, Ukrainians work at making life normal.

Even if it means breaking the law. When I first visited this beach in 2022, during the first year of the invasion, swimming was forbidden because of mines floating in the Black Sea. Police patrolled the beach. I met a 90-year-old back then named Halyna Druz, who ignored them. She had been swimming here for 40 years. Odesa was still free. Giving up the beach, she said, would feel like capitulating to the Russians.

The swimming ban has since been lifted. I didn’t find Halyna on the beach when I went back there last week, but I could sense her joie de vivre among the beachgoers making the most of this respite.

The next night, Russian drones attacked Odesa again.

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