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Odesa Oblast: News

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The trouble with loving Russia: Evan Gershkovich's memoir seeks sentimentality in a lost country

By the end of his pre-trial detention at Moscow's infamous Lefortovo Prison, American journalist Evan Gershkovich had developed a curious rapport with the FSB investigator tasked with proving he was a spy. "Most people break after four months or so, but you're still holding strong — a year in," the investigator told him, and the two raised their cigarettes in a toast to "having tried to find common ground." Gershkovich writes about many such moments in "This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-Am

“This Cursed Beautiful Land” by Gershkovich, and charred trees in Voronezh, Russia, on Aug. 1, 2010.

About Odesa Oblast

The region in Ukraine’s southwest covers 33,310 square kilometers (12,861 square miles) along Ukraine's Black Sea coast, with a population of approximately 2.4 million and Odesa city as its administrative center. Odesa Oblast borders Moldova to the west, and Romania across the delta of the Danube. Odesa Oblast serves as Ukraine's main maritime trade gateway and has faced repeated Russian missile and drone strikes targeting port infrastructure since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

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