Odesa is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative centre of the Odesa Raion and Odesa Oblast, as well as a multiethnic cultural centre. As of January 2021, Odesa's population was approximately 1,010,537. On 25 January 2023, its historic city centre was declared a World Heritage Site and added to the List of World Heritage in Danger by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in recognition of its multiculturality and 19th-century urban planning. The declaration was made in response to the bombing of Odesa during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has damaged or destroyed buildings across the city.
.ua is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Ukraine. To register at the second-level (example) domainname.ua, possession of the exact trademark is required. It is not required for third-level domains.
The Odessa massacre was the mass murder of the Jewish population of Odessa and surrounding towns in the Transnistria Governorate during the autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1942 while it was under Romanian control. It was one of the worst massacres in Ukrainian territory.
The Kyiv Post is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. In November 2021, following an editorial disagreement, the Kyiv Post fired all of its reporters, many of whom founded and joined the Kyiv Independent.
The OdesaNational Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is the oldest theatre in Odesa, Ukraine. The Theatre and the Potemkin Stairs are the most famous edifices in Odesa.
Kherson Governorate, known until 1803 as Nikolayev Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kherson. It encompassed 71,936 square kilometres (27,775 sq mi) in area and had a population of 2,733,612 inhabitants. At the time of the census in 1897, it bordered Podolia Governorate to the northwest, Kiev Governorate to the north, Poltava Governorate to the northeast, Yekaterinoslav Governorate to the east, Taurida Governorate to the southeast, Black Sea to the south, and Bessarabia Governorate to the west. It roughly corresponds to what is now most of Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad and Odesa Oblasts in Ukraine and some parts of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts.
Amshey Markovich Nurenberg was a Ukrainian, Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist, art critic, and memoirist. He was an adherent of the School of Paris.
From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups took place in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Odesa. The unrest, which was supported by the Russian military and intelligence services, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
In early 2014, there were clashes between rival groups of protestors in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, during the pro-Russian unrest that followed the Ukrainian Revolution. The street clashes were between pro-revolution ('pro-Maidan') protesters and anti-revolution ('anti-Maidan'), pro-Russian protesters. Violence erupted on 2 May, when a 'United Ukraine' rally of about 2,000 was attacked by about 300 pro-Russian separatists. Stones, petrol bombs and gunfire were exchanged. A pro-Russian gunman shot dead a pro-Ukraine protester. Another pro-Ukraine activist and four pro-Russia activists were shot dead in the clashes. The pro-Ukraine group then moved to dismantle a pro-Russian protest camp in Kulykove Pole, causing some pro-Russian activists to barricade themselves in the nearby Trade Unions House. Shots were fired from the building at the pro-Ukraine group, and the pro-Ukrainians attempted to storm the building, which caught fire as the two groups threw petrol bombs at each other.
Mikhail Reva is a Ukrainian artist, sculptor, architect, a founder of a non-profit organisation REVA Foundation.
Vasiliy Ryabchenko is a Ukrainian painter, photographer, and installation artist. One of the key artists in contemporary Ukrainian art, and the "New Ukrainian Wave".
Stanislav Shyrokoradiuk, O.F.M. is a Ukrainian prelate of the Catholic Church who became Bishop of Odesa-Simferopol since February 2020 after a year as Coadjutor Bishop there. He was Bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia from 2014 to 2019 and Auxiliary Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr from 1994 to 2014.
Nova Poshta, called Nova Post outside Ukraine, is a private Ukrainian postal and courier company that provides logistics and related services for individuals and businesses. Its main competitor is the country's post office, Ukrposhta.
Stepan Ryabchenko is a Ukrainian new media artist. His work includes digital art, conceptual architecture, sculpture, graphics, photographic art and light installations. In his artwork, the artist creates his own digital universe with its heroes and mythology. Known for his monumental prints, sculptures and video-art installations of non-existent characters, including Virtual Flowers, Electronic Winds, Computer Viruses, etc.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which started in 2014. The invasion, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of 2024, Russian troops occupy about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
The Kyiv Independent is an English-language Ukrainian online newspaper founded in 2021 by former staff of the Kyiv Post and media consultancy Jnomics Media. The online newspaper is also active on Twitter and Reddit.
Hero City of Ukraine is a Ukrainian honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was awarded to ten cities in March 2022, in addition to four already-named Hero Cities of the Soviet Union. This symbolic distinction for a city corresponds to the distinction of Hero of Ukraine awarded to individuals.
During the southern Ukraine offensive of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city of Odesa and the surrounding region have been the target of shelling and air strikes by Russian forces on multiple occasions since the conflict began, fired predominantly from Russian warships situated offshore in the Black Sea. The city has also been targeted by Russian cruise missiles.
Vladislav Grigorievich Davidzon is an artist, writer, editor and publisher, film producer best known for his journalism and chronicling on post-Soviet politics with an emphasis on cultural affairs. Davidzon is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of The Odessa Review, an anglophone publication that focused on the cultural life of Odesa, Ukraine. Davidzon is a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council at the Eurasia Center and is the author of From Odessa with Love, a novel about modern Odesa. He is known for his daily practice of keeping an artistic daybook/diary and also for his work as a collage artist. In March 2022 he burned his Russian passport in front of the Russian embassy in Paris with former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves holding the lighter.
During the autumn and winter of 2022–2023, Russia launched waves of missile and drone strikes against energy in Ukraine as part of its invasion. The strikes targeted civilian areas beyond the battlefield, particularly critical power infrastructure, which is considered a war crime. By the end of 2023, Russian forces launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,900 Shahed drone strikes against Ukraine according to Ukrainian military officials.
