The tragic events in Odessa revealed something very unexpected. Odessa is the only Ukrainian city I know that I could call very Russian. Not pro-Russian, which is a ridiculous and meaningless term adored by spineless Western journalists, but actually Russian in its culture, its way of life, everything. I visited Odessa once and was shocked at how similar it was to St. Petersburg, not in terms of architecture, which is very different, but in the way people acted. My visit to Odessa was extremely unpleasant because it was painful to see so many low-cultured, rude, garish, horribly vulgar and mean people per square inch of territory.
But if even in this city, which is exceptional in Ukraine in the degree of its Rusianness, a crowd of soccer fans chose to come out into the streets and march under Ukrainian flags and dozens of people were willing to die for Ukraine, this means that, as the first line of our national anthem says, Ukraine is really not dead yet.
Clarissa's Blog 
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