Just reading this NY Times piece by Roger Cohen
with many great photographs by Laetitia Vancon about the current standing of the Ukrainian city of Odesa. (It may be impossible for me to adapt to the new spelling, it used to have 'ss' in the middle and to my eyes that looks proper). Anyhow, Odesa is a city with great history and I expected Russia to make a play for it, which it has. Despite it being well within Ukraine's current zones of occupation. Odesa is a city that has it all: history, multiple cultures living cheek by jowl, and fierce commerce. If Odesa went to the Russians, it would mean that Ukraine had no coast left, and finish it off as a nation of size and consequence.

I hadn't read a Roger Cohen story in some time. He's an English commentator, I believe, if it's the same one I remember.