"Ukraine today is a buffer zone. A wall between the civilized world and totalitarianism."
Kirill Bondarenko is 40 years old and twenty years ago he started painting by joining a movement of dissent artists who, instead of the usual tablets, used banknotes to draw their protest against power.
"You see, on one of these there is a snail made of many small tanks, pointing at the Hanseatic-style buildings. Well, that snail is Putin", he says in his studio of him, submerged by the disorder and by paintings of every guy.
Bondarenko is one of Odessa's most famous contemporary artists.
A city that, after the first days of great fear and despite being the target of Russian ships for a month, tries in its own way to return to normal.
The Pryvoz market, in times of peace, was a 'must' on any tourist tour.
It is located a stone's throw from the station and is a world unto itself, poised between the Middle East and Central Asia, a faithful mirror of the history of the city.
When the war broke out it emptied.
Of shopkeepers and customers.
Then, slowly, he began to live again.
"Last August I was in Afghanistan with my family, I left just a week before the US retreat. And now we're back in the war," Ahmad says with a sigh.
Afghan, for decades in Odessa with his delicious spices, at the end of the Eighties he fought with the mujahideen against the USSR.
"The Communists are liars, they promised us a better future and lied."
But in the war between Ukraine and Russia, in his opinion, there is more to negotiate than to fight: "It would be good above all for Ukraine, Putin wants to destroy it", he stresses.
The Pryvoz market is made up of many compartments, some outdoors, others indoors.
Meat, Black Sea fish, Georgian cheeses, pomegranate juice, Uzbek sweets, sports clothes and underwear: you can find everything among these stalls.
Izatullah, with his Mongolian features and his gab, is something of a star of the market.
He comes from Tashkent, has four wives and 65 years old but looks at least ten younger.
His spices - he assures - are the best in the Black Sea. Then he becomes serious and announces that, if needed, he would go to the front without hesitation: "This is my land now, my nephew was born here. The war has trade blocked, but we will be able to survive this. The important thing is to defend ourselves from the Russians ".
The morning goes by at the Pryvoz market rather calmly.
The sirens sound but only a few decide to run to the shelters.
And the loudspeakers here invite families more than anything else to supervise the little ones, who could get lost among the stalls.
Remnants of everyday life in a city that, despite the missiles, is being repopulated.
Even traffic becomes a glimmer of hope.
"Until a few days ago the parking lots were empty, now finding a place in the center is once again difficult, at least during the day", smiles Anna.
In short, Odessa resists.
And she does it too in her art scene of hers.
Kirill, in recent years, has toured half of Europe, some of his works are also exhibited at the British Museum.
He claims to fight, by means of designs, the corruption of the West and Putinian totalitarianism.
"After 2014, in Ukraine, there were always those who were close to Russia. But now Putin has united everyone against him, even the babushkas (the old ladies, ed)", he says, rolling a tobacco cigarette.
And did EU support surprise you?
"Yes, I was surprised by the slowness with which Europe understood Putin. Unfortunately, democracies move more slowly than totalitarian regimes".
(HANDLE).