Greetings from Odesa, Ukraine, where a Black Sea beach offers respite from war
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.
See more photos from around the world:
- Greetings from Palmyra, Syria, with its once-grand hotel named for a warrior queen
- Greetings from Mexico City, where these dogs ride a bus to and from school
- Greetings from the Galápagos Islands, where the blue-footed booby shows its colors
- Greetings from Afrin, Syria, where Kurds danced their hearts out to celebrate spring
- Greetings from Dharamshala, India, where these Tibetan kids were having the best time
- Far from the front lines, Ukrainians fight a war to preserve their culture
Public media stations in rural America say emergency-alert funding is in jeopardy
Without Congressionally-approved funding, public media stations say communities will be left with aging infrastructure amid growing risks from extreme weather.
Video: Echoes of Katrina – Two decades of struggle and strength
NPR station photographer and New Orleans native Tyrone Turner travelled back to Louisiana to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The federal government is taking over D.C.’s Union Station. What does that mean?
The Department of Transportation says it will be "reclaiming management" of the transportation hub, which it has owned since the 1980s. D.C.'s mayor says that would be an "amazing initiative."
Whatever happened to the women in the ‘No Sex for Fish’ group?
NPR first wrote about the group "No Sex for Fish" in 2019 — Kenyan women out to end the practice of trading sex to a fisherman in exchange for his catch to sell. Since then they're faced tribulations.
Why billions of folks can’t easily get a drink or flush a toilet
A report from the World Health Organization says 1 in 4 people lack access to safe water to drink. Even more don't have water for sanitation. We asked someone who grew up that way to share childhood memories.
With no federal facial recognition law, states rush to fill void
Nearly two dozen states have passed laws regulating how tech companies collect data from our faces, eyes and voices. It comes as Congress has yet to pass any facial recognition technology.
