Odesa beaches reopen, offering Ukrainians a respite from war

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/ [login to see] /ukraine-odesa-beaches-reopen-black-sea
On a hot, late-summer afternoon, Tatiana Sapunshtyn came with her daughter Polina to wade and sunbathe on a city beach in Odesa in southern Ukraine.

"This is the summer to be a little bit relaxed when we have the kids," she said. "It's really important for everybody, for every family."

The chic beaches of Odesa, a short walk from glitzy hotels and shoreside restaurants, were once a draw for tourists from around the world — many of them from Russia. In peacetime, cosmopolitan crowds speaking a dozen different languages would swim here together.

Now this stretch of Black Sea coast is an active war zone, at the center of a global conflict over grain shipments. Russian ships and aircraft regularly fire missiles that strike Odesa.