Battle in the Black Sea

How the Odesa sea port, long paralyzed by a rain of missiles, managed the feat of becoming Ukraine’s gateway to the world again

"Odesa is not the first city in Ukraine, but it is not the second," wrote Isaac Babel, a Jewish writer and Soviet playwright of Ukrainian origin. Clearly, Odesa does not fit into any classification; it is special, a universe within a universe. What makes this city so peculiar?

Odesa was named in 1794 by Empress Catherine the Great, after Odessos, a nearby Greek settlement, in honor of Odysseus, the Greek name for Ulysses, the sailor. Odesa is, in a sense, an Odyssey on the Black Sea.

Six centuries earlier, there were already fertile plains, grain, and a Turkish port, Hadji Bey, to export it. As a convergence point of maritime routes linking Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the port naturally established itself as a commercial and cultural crossroads, a driver for goods and ideas. Ukraine is known as "the granary of Europe." Its rich black soil produces millions of tons of wheat, corn, and barley. Odesa, "the pearl of the Black Sea," is not merely a logistics hub. It is the beating heart of the Ukrainian economy, a gateway to the world, its lungs, and, today, a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity. Its activity or its paralysis determines the survival of an entire country at war.

In general, Ukraine exports 130 million tons of goods—grain, coal, steel, and containers. Eighty percent of freight leaves from "Greater Odesa," a group of three ports: Chornomorsk, 20 km to the south, Pivdenny, 30 km to the north, and Odesa itself. Nearly 70 million tons of grain are shipped out to feed the world—Africa, dependent regions, Asia, China, and Vietnam. Cutting this lifeline means starving people and suffocating Ukraine. And that is exactly what almost happened when Odesa nearly died.

In February 2022, during the first days of the invasion, the Russians bombed Kherson, Mykolaiv, and targeted Odesa’s docks and storage facilities. A few vessels managed to set sail in haste, but several dozen cargo ships were trapped. In March, the Russians launched missiles at grain silos, loading cranes, and vegetable oil pipelines. In May, several vessels moored in the port were struck hard. A cargo ship exploded, causing a local oil spill. The port of Odesa burned. There were fears of enemy commandos landing on the beaches or directly in the port and its immense quays. For six months, insurance rates soared, shipowners avoided the area, sailors stayed ashore, and Odesa was dying.

Once the initial shock passed and the enemy was pushed back to the north, the Ukrainians reacted. Military access to the port was blocked, waters near the coast were mined, and goods were redirected to the Romanian port of Constanta or shipped by train to Europe. But the docks were quickly overwhelmed, the trains were insufficient and too slow, and the rail gauge in the east was incompatible with the western standard... nothing could replace the port of Odesa.

Grain ferments in silos or rots in the fields. Wheat prices skyrocket in Africa, stock markets panic, the world trembles. Negotiations begin under the aegis of the United Nations. Endless tripartite discussions—UN-Moscow, Ukraine-UN—are held to reach an agreement, a "Memorandum" that allows the partial resumption of traffic to Turkey. "But the Russians multiplied the blockages, imposed interminable inspections in Istanbul, arguing that arms could be smuggled," says Arthur Nitsevych, Interlegal legal advisor and maritime expert. "In short, they were playing for time with the worst intentions. A way to kill the agreement."

Memorandum or not, the strikes continued. At the end of July 2022, missiles and a hail of drones destroyed grain silos in the port, wiping out thousands of tons of grain ready for export. In August, a vessel was attacked offshore. Cargo ships, cranes, warehouses, loading logistics systems—nothing was spared.

Finally, Ukraine and the United Nations found a way around it by charting routes as close as possible to the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts, members of the European Union, which Moscow dared not attack. And Kyiv's drones, which sank Russian ships, forced Moscow’s fleet to retreat far from Crimea. The Black Sea became free again.

Today, the massive red and black cargo ships, with a capacity of 100,000 tons, are once again setting sail from Odesa’s docks for ports around the world, with traffic reaching 6 million tons per month, almost at pre-war levels. "Now, people are already dreaming of the end of the war, of the future, and of the boom Odesa will experience again," says  Arthur Nitsevych. After all, there is no city as southern, lively, and cosmopolitan under the sun or so close to Europe as Odesa. Eternal phoenix city? Arthur has no doubt: "When? As soon as we achieve victory!"

To be continued...