My mate, my crane operator, died just five metres from me… The driver stayed in the cab. He died, too. Svitlana Halchenko winces at the memory of the Russian ballistic missile which exploded at work in Odesa, killing her colleagues.
Svitlana is a shift manager at the city’s biggest port, at the warehouse. Despite her injuries – bits of shrapnel still lodged in her leg and back, she walks with a limp Svitlana is determined to keep working. Her normally busy workplace is mostly quiet. Russia is intensifying its efforts to strangle Ukraine’s trade connections to the outside world by shelling the entire Black Sea coast of the country.
The evidence is everywhere, from destroyed port infrastructure to ships that are wallowing with burned bridges and containers still smoldering. That is especially true as far as the eye can see, where the approaches to Ukraine’s once-bustling ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi are all but empty of ships. Svitlana keeps a brave smile on her face during our conversation, but her pain is obvious. Her fingers twist a tissue as she attempts to keep control and she looks into the distance as tears start to fill up behind her glasses.
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