Ukrainians react to rising tensions in the east
(18 Feb 2022) The Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Friday afternoon felt a world away from the country's eastern frontline, where shelling has intensified in recent days. Odesa, on the Black Sea, is a crucial part of Ukraine's economy. There are concerns that the city could be a possible entry point for Russian troops, due to its proximity to occupied Crimea and Russia's Black Sea fleet. But a day after a shell hit a kindergarten in the town of Stanytsia Luhanska in the country's east near the line of contact with seperatist controlled territories, which left two people shell-shocked, Odesan families strolled along the beachfront in the warm February sun, seemingly unperturbed by the situation facing the country. People walked their dogs on the city's iconic Potemkin stairs, families fed seagulls and a newlywed couple posed for photos. "We are scared to some degree, we just don't want the situation to worsen of course," said Alexandra Tabashnenko, smiling in her glittering wedding dress. Her new husband Pavel said that they had not been worried about going forward with their wedding, amid U.S. warnings of an imminent invasion, and that everything was, he said, "absolutely fine". Meanwhile local resident, Vladimir Mukhin, said that the shelling was "a provocation" and an attempt "to apply pressure, to blackmail the whole world and Ukraine." Mukhin said that after eight years of conflict, people had got used to the idea of war. His wife, Nataliya Viklenko, speculated that the shelling on the kindergarten was part of a possible tactic to initiate a full-scale war. "Sometimes we are scared. If you follow the news it becomes scary," she said. "If it was needed, I would go (to the frontline). My husband is military-trained and I would go with him. I wouldn't run away." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
