Meet Sasha – Odesa Walk Around

I first met Sasha this past summer at a charity polo match in Newport, where I was a guest of the Newport and Jamestown Ukraine Relief Projects.
They were representing Ukraine, and I was still trying to wrap my head around polo. I struck up a conversation with a Ukrainian woman who mentioned her 12-year-old son, saying his English was far better than hers and that I should meet him.
Later in the afternoon, I spotted Sasha with friends. They seemed so familiar with each other that I assumed he couldn't be the Ukrainian refugee I'd imagined. Little did I know how deeply rooted this young family was in Newport. I was blown away when Sasha started speaking—his English was flawless, without a trace of an accent. We soon launched into one of the most insightful conversations I’ve had about Ukraine including a detailed tutorial on the various missiles and drones Russia was using against his country.

Sasha was born in Sevastopol, Crimea. His whole family left Crimea in 2014. It turns out Sasha had spent his kindergarten year in Newport back in 2017, while his father attended the Naval War College at the invitation of the U.S. government. After the full-scale invasion in March 2022, mom and the kids left Ukraine for the USA. His dad’s friend Erik Brine took them in and they were in Jamestown, RI for 18 months. His dad stayed in Ukraine and has served in some of the toughest theaters of the war.

Sasha seems as American as any other seventh grader, excelling in school, playing the flute, and practicing Taekwondo three times a week. His older sister, Yana, is a medical student in Kyiv.  

This summer, however, Sasha wasn’t in Newport for school but to recover from a concussion caused by two Iskander ballistic missiles that hit near his home in Odesa. He still has trouble hearing in one ear. Odesa is too close to Crimea for much warning before missile strikes—unlike Kyiv, where sirens often result in false alarms, in Odesa, an explosion usually follows within minutes.

Fast forward to last week: I had told Sasha’s mother, Viktoriia, about my upcoming trip to Odesa for my next documentary, Beyond Bucha, and asked if Sasha could be my translator and guide. After exchanging a few emails, I made it to their beloved city. Unfortunately, just as I arrived, Russia had intensified its assault on Odesa, targeting grain shipments from the port.
Of all the Ukrainian cities I’ve visited, Odesa felt the hottest, and not because of the weather. On my first night, I heard an explosion just minutes after an air raid siren. The following night, another attack resulted in fatalities. It reminded me of the aftermath of mass shootings in U.S. cities—tragic, persistent, yet life goes on. The people here have become as accustomed to war as one can be. They refuse to be cowed by missiles and drones. It feels more like terrorism, given how many strikes hit civilian targets like the Transfiguration Cathedral.

Despite everything, Odesans love their city and won’t let the bombings disrupt their lives. This resilience is something I’ve seen all across Ukraine—people deeply love their hometowns, and for good reason.

On my first day in Odesa, Viktoriia welcomed me with five bottles of Ukrainian red wine, a bottle of cognac, cookies, candy, apples, and grapes. After nearly a week, I’m still working my way through it all! The generosity and hospitality have been overwhelming.

As a natural result I suppose the people here are also as used to the realities of this war as anyone. “Used to it” isn’t exactly the right term but life goes on. And they won’t be cowed by a terrorist with missiles and drones. And it really is more akin to terrorism in that so many of these projectiles miss and hit civilian targets like the Transfiguration Cathedral last year. It’s not like Odesa is in artillery range so you really have to go looking to find something blown up. This beautiful city–like Kyiv, Bucha, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia before them on my itinerary-- is intact. And for the most part the “booms” are distant, as the apps on Sasha phone made clear. So, the bombings are more akin to terrorism not a great military, who are intent on making life as miserable as possible.

Sasha and his family showed me the beauty of Odesa, including a visit to the famous Transfiguration Cathedral, which was struck by a Russian missile in 2023. You’ll catch glimpses of it in the attached video, with more to come in my film. Life continues here, even as sirens wail in the background. I also visited Sasha’s school, where we were treated to lunch by the headmistress. But the highlight for me was attending a ballet performance at the Odesa Opera House, one of Europe’s great treasures, where we watched a stunning Ukrainian ballet set to Chopin.

​Of all the moments in Odesa, the one that stands out most was a walk along the Black Sea with Sasha’s family and their dog. I even took off my shoes to step into the water on the stony beach. As the day ended, Sasha had to head home to study, and I paid him a small sum for his incredible work as a guide, translator, and cameraman—he shot almost all the footage for this segment. Despite his mother’s objections, I insisted he accept the money, and he ended up buying four physics books with it!
I’m excited to return to Odesa after Beyond Bucha is completed to share the film with them. I owe Sasha and his family a great deal for their help with the Odesa segment, and I hope they’ll love the final result. I’m certainly looking forward to going back.