In brief
In Odesa, families like Mariia, Serhii, and their daughter Eva are grappling with the dangers of sustained Russian drone attacks, which have intensified over recent weeks. Despite having fled their home in Kherson, the family now faces dire conditions in Odesa, where economic stability is threatened and aerial assaults on critical infrastructure continue. As the winter chill sets in, power outages and ongoing threats of violence loom large, leaving residents trapped in a relentless cycle of fear and uncertainty.
From Mariia's 16th-floor flat, the calm waters of the Black Sea stretch out into the horizon beneath the fading twilight.
Up here you can see and hear when the drones come, she says, standing by a wall-length, floor-to-ceiling window. When they hit buildings and homes in the city of Odesa down below we see all the fires too.
Her daughter Eva, who is nine, has learned the shapes and sounds of the objects that zoom through the sky on a daily basis. She proudly shows off a list of social media channels she checks when the air raid alerts go off.
She knows whether what's coming is a risk or a threat, and that calms her down, her father Serhii says.
There is scarcely a place in Ukraine that has not been targeted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
But in recent weeks Odesa – Ukraine's third largest city – has come under sustained attack. Through strikes on port and energy infrastructure, Russia is trying to cripple the region's economy and dent the population's morale.
Moscow, however, does not just hit facilities. Its drones, most of them as big as a motorcycle, regularly crash into high-rise buildings like Masha's, exploding on impact and blowing glass and debris inward. The consequences are often deadly.
As the strikes surge, air sirens go off frequently, but not everyone heeds them. Standing in front of a destroyed gym the morning after an overnight drone strike that injured seven people, Maryna Averina of the State Emergency Service concedes people have become very careless about their own safety.
Tucked in south-western Ukraine, Odesa was an economic powerhouse before the war. But now that Russia occupies the majority of Ukraine's coastline, the region has become even more vital. Its three ports are Ukraine's largest and include the country's only deep-water port. With land crossings disrupted, 90% of Ukraine exports last year were shipped by sea.
As is the case with the rest of Ukraine, if Russia cannot have Odesa, it seems determined to continue crippling it.
