This e-mail came from one of our Ukrainian grain traders in Odesa, Ukraine.
I just want to share with you all…
Writing this from my house underground as airstrike siren was alarming Odessa residents last evening…and there are sounds of missiles blasting this morning, while I am writing these words.
Off the emotions:
1) Ukraine stands against Russian aggression the and has capabilities to stand for longer
2) Initial few days of early panic, among civil societies, have changed into a new normal. People learn fast.
3) Between 0.5 and 1 million people have left Ukraine since early AM on 24 Feb. I was one of those, as first heavy blast (target was a military base 4 -5 km away from our house) woke me up completely and so we packed bags fast and left to Moldova. We settled there and I returned back to Odessa the next day. So I can speak of what I saw….and I saw thousands of people on 25/02 trying to make exodus. Must say I was a sole person who returned from “other side”.
4) Shops, civil transport, utilities work as of normal in Odessa, of course in other cities situation is different. Debit card settlements are of normal, diesel oil and gas are available in pumping stations (there were certain limitations as demand was higher than supply, but….)
5) Our “brothers” and brave denazificators, tried to approach many times and received unpleasant resistance, with many of them dead and injured.
6) Our “brothers” provided act of piracy (as they officially declared no war but a special counter-terrorist operation to help separatists in the East) and seized two commercial vessels under Ukrainian flag recently, near island of Zmeiny (Snake Island) where they destroyed radio-location station and murdered dozen of military servants there….who could not respond them and only sent them to hell (original language was different indeed) via radio-channel.
7) There is no hyper-inflation here in Ukraine, we were used to such situation and hryvnya fell from 30 prior the war to 37–38 if one aims to buy a dollar and about 30 perhaps if one wants to sell it.
8) Trade is disrupted. No international trade at least out of Ukrainian ports and…
