Odesa

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to watch the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

May 11, 2022, 1:09 am

US says Putin prepping for prolonged Ukraine campaign, could utilize nuclear weapons

Russian troops press assaults in east and south; Kyiv pushes for EU membership, saying matter is a question of ‘war and peace’ for continent

By AFP and TOI staff

A Ukrainian National Guard soldier sits inside a tank at a position near Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 9, 2022. (Felipe Dana/AP)

May 10, 2022, 12:45 pm

Russia pummels Odesa; 44 civilian bodies uncovered in Izyum building collapse

Ukraine warns Russia is depleting its precision weapons, raising risk of imprecise rockets causing more civilian damage; but advanced guided missiles are seen in use against Odesa

By Elena Becatoros and Jon Gambrell

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Monday, April 25, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

April 25, 2022, 12:28 am

Zelensky meets Blinken and Austin in Kyiv as Ukraine pushes for more US arms

US secretary of state and defense secretary travel to Ukraine in first visit by top American officials since Russia launched its brutal invasion two months ago

By david keyton

Smoke and fire is seen after shelling in Odesa, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)

April 23, 2022, 7:04 pm

Ukraine says Russian strike on Odesa killed 5, including three-month-old infant

Kyiv says 18 people wounded in missile attack on Black Sea port, which hit military facility and two residential buildings; Moscow continues assault on last Mariupol stronghold

By Agencies

Men walk in a street destroyed by shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

April 14, 2022, 8:26 am

Moscow threatens to strike Kyiv after Russian flagship ‘seriously damaged’

International prosecutors touring Bucha say Ukraine is a ‘crime scene’; new $800 million US military aid package includes helicopters and armored personnel carriers

By Joris FIORITI

Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, center, gives instructions during preparations for the celebration of Jewish Passover at the Chabad Jewish Education Center in Berlin, Germany, April 7, 2022. Rabbis and Jewish organizations are working round the clock within Ukraine, Eastern Europe and other parts of Europe to make sure that Jews who remain in Ukraine and refugees who have fled as far away as Israel are able to celebrate Passover. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

April 12, 2022, 4:32 pm

A festival of freedom, Passover takes on new meaning for Jews fleeing Ukraine

‘It’s going to be an unforgettable Passover,’ says Odesa’s Rabbi Wolff, as thousands of refugees seek to celebrate the Jewish holiday far from home

By DEEPA BHARATH

Volunteers load a vehicle with sandbags to defend the city, in Odesa, southern Ukraine, on March 23, 2022 (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

March 27, 2022, 10:53 am

‘We will win’: Odesa prepares for Russian offensive as warships near

Residents brace for attack as Russian vessels approach coastline city; the only fear ‘is that the other side has no principles whatsoever,’ says resident learning to use a gun

By YESICA FISCH and Cara Anna

Musicians play for people living in a metro station used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP)

March 26, 2022, 9:54 pm

Ukrainian musicians hold concert in bombed Kharkiv’s subway

Listeners have been living in the underground station for weeks amid Russian onslaught

By Hervé BAR

Thousands of Ukrainians wait to enter the checkpoint at the Ukraine-Moldova border in Palanca, March 5, 2022. (Jacob Judah via JTA)

March 9, 2022, 10:26 pm

At Moldova border, Jews from Odesa wonder when they’ll be able to return home

Bracing for a Russian attack on their hometown, many residents escape to neighboring country; reject Putin’s claim of ‘denazifying’ Ukraine

By Jacob Judah

A couple embrace as they stand in front of an evacuation train at the central train station in Odesa on March 6, 2022. (BULENT KILIC / AFP)

March 7, 2022, 3:56 pm

Ukraine fears iconic port city of Odesa could be Putin’s next target

The cosmopolitan city has a Russian-speaking majority and a rich history as the birthplace of the Jewish Russian mafia and the storied setting for crime novels

By AFP

Volunteers load sandbags into the back of a bus to build barricades in Odesa, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)

March 6, 2022, 3:59 pm

Russia preparing to shell port city of Odesa, Zelensky warns

Ukrainian president says Russians had always been welcome in resort city; ‘and now what? Bombs against Odesa?’

By AFP

Demonstrators carry placards and flags during a protest march against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, outside the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, on February 28, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

February 28, 2022, 6:33 pm

Israelis of Ukrainian origin sell belongings to raise cash for brethren under fire

Community member says: ‘I am in almost physical pain. But who believed that the Maccabees would triumph, or Israel in the Six Day War?’

By Sue Surkes

Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch and his wife, Inna, Chabad emissaries in Kyiv, Ukraine, speak to journalists in Israel through Zoom on February 24, 2022. (Screen capture)

February 24, 2022, 4:19 pm

Kyiv rabbi opens synagogue as a refuge: ‘No bomb shelter, but we can be together’

Jewish leader in beleaguered Ukrainian capital fears looting as he stockpiles food, fuel in community center to help the elderly, poor Jews unable to flee the city

By Judah Ari Gross

Menachem Mendel Cohen, Septmember10,2020. (screen capture: Ynet)

September 11, 2020, 10:09 am

Ukraine rabbis plead against Uman trips after 1 falls critically ill with virus

Rabbi Mendel Cohen was evacuated to Israel for urgent treatment, warns of ‘great danger’; Odessa rabbi says local health system in collapse: ‘We won’t be able to help you’

By TOI staff

Children sing during a program at the JCC Migdal in Odessa, in this undated photo. (Courtesy Kira Verkhovsky)

June 27, 2020, 4:07 pm

Odessa Jews protest new luxury apartments that could collapse historic synagogue

Built as house of prayer for kosher butchers in 1909, structure passed through Nazi and KGB hands and has been a JCC since 1991 — but may not survive new construction project

By Julie Masis