🇺🇦 The news from Odessa

Vladislav Davidzon joins the Cosmopolicast.

Vivek Kelkar, Monique Camarra and I caught up with Vladislav Davidzon, the author of From Odessa with Love: Political and Literary Essays from Post-Soviet Ukraine—which you should order and read.

Vladislav is in Odessa right now. Right before we started recording, he heard an explosion. He spent a few minutes trying to figure out where it came from and whether it would be followed by a double tap, then decided it was probably the sound of a Russian missile being shot down over the port, and there was nothing (more than usual) to worry about. I wasn’t wholly reassured, but he wanted to go ahead with the podcast, so we did.

Just now, this news came across the transom. Maybe it was this?

The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent

⚡️Russia strikes Odesa Oblast. The Odesa District State Administration reported on July 31 that Russian forces had conducted a missile strike hitting a quarry. The authorities didn't specify the location. The number of casualties is being clarified.

Here’s what we talked about:

• A week of atrocities: Ukraine’s Katyn massacre.

• Is any grain getting out of the ports at all?

• Is Europe already tired of supporting Ukraine?

• The amazing impact of the HIMARS.

• Do you guys have enough ammo?

• Why can’t we get ammo to the front fast enough?

• Why would Washington be trying to slow walk the supply of equipment?

• What’s Russia’s long-term strategy?

• What have Ukrainian generals been telling Vladislav?

• What’s the plan for the counteroffensive?

• What’s going to happen in the winter, after the midterms—and when Germany starts to freeze?

• How’s the Ukrainian military’s morale?

• How about the public?

• Are the Ukrainians going to win?

• At what cost?

• How long could this war possibly last?

• Can an economically viable Ukrainian state survive?

• How much of Ukraine’s economy and industry has already been destroyed?

• Has long can Putin keep insulating the Russian middle class from the real cost of the war?

• Is there any imaginable scenario in which the war ends soon?

• How are Vladislav’s relatives in Ukraine coping?

• How about his wife? The rest of his family?

• What do Ukrainian civil society organizations need?

• How can I send Ukraine a drone?

• I’ve got scalpels and gastric tubes to spare. How do I send them to Ukraine?

• What’s Vladislav’s next book about?

• How has Odessa changed since the war began? Where did all the women go?

• Where can I read Larissa Babij’s Substack?

• How have views of Russia changed among Ukrainian Russophones?

• Is it a good idea for Odessa to tear down its Pushkin statues?

• How much physical damage has Odessa sustained?

• Why is de-mining the Black Sea contentious?

• How exactly do you de-mine the Black Sea?

• By shooting a machine gun into the water? Seriously?

• How much does it cost these days to insure a Black Sea vessel?

• Is Ukraine’s airspace effectively closed?

• Does Ukraine still have aircraft in the air?

• Why aren’t we giving them planes?

• Why is it difficult to get planes into Ukraine?

• What was Slovenia’s plan for giving Ukraine its jets? What happened to that plan?

• What would it take to light a fire under the Biden Administration’s collective, slow-walking ass?

• Who exactly in the administration is holding up the works?

• How does slow-walking these weapons make any strategic sense?

• Who in the US is most responsible for Ukraine policy?

• Should we designate Russia a terrorist state?

• How many Chechens are fighting on Ukraine’s side?

• What about Belorussians?

• What about Westerners?

• Who are the best foreign fighters?

• I’m a right-wing Ukrainian nationalist, but I’m not white. Can I join the Azov battalion?

• Why is the West barely reacting to the murder of Ukrainian POWs?

• Why are the Russians ratcheting up their atrocities now?

• How far advanced is the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes?

• Why did Zelensky fire his prosecutor general and his security chief?

• Would you please be careful, Vlad? Keep the helmet on?

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