Sunbathing in the red zone

Ukrainian article of the week published in the 37th edition of the "What about Ukraine" newsletter on July 11th, 2024. The article was written by Nataliia Nahorna for Hromadske and was translated for n-ost by Olesia Storozhuk and Natalia Volynets. Read the original article here.

Starting the beach season in the resort town of Zatoka on the Black Sea south of Odesa is impossible — there is still a threat of Russian troops landing from the sea, according to the Odesa regional authorities. Therefore, the whole coast from Odesa to Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi remains a red zone.

Nevertheless, since early summer, local businesses have started advertising their hotels and holiday resorts on social networks. We dialled up one of these numbers and received confirmation that visitors are welcome.

I booked a room for a night in one of the hotels to see with my own eyes whether tourists indeed go to Zatoka, to understand the risks — and to interview local businesspeople about why they opened hotels and cafes, despite the dangers, ask whether they have bomb shelters and whether holidaymakers swim in the sea, considering the chance of stumbling upon a mine.

How to reach the beach

Zatoka is currently unreachable by public transport. The last train or bus stop is in the neighbouring village of Karolino-Buhaz. Located just a few kilometres away, Zatoka can be reached on foot from there. The resort I booked was 20-30 minutes away.

Most people come here by car.

Public transport stopped operating due to the closure of thedrawbridge between Soniachne and the central district of Zatoka. This has been repeatedly shelled by the Russians.

Now, to get from Odesa to the central district of the town (entry is possible only with an official registration) or further — to Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, you must drive over one hundred kilometres through the border area with Moldova and the check-point ‘Palanka’, which involves strict control, especially for conscription-aged men. 

We booked a hotel room in the Lymanskyi district. This is distinctive due to its wide beaches. In the times of war, it is the most accessible, the closest resort to Odesa and the most distant from the bridge, which is a military target for Russians.

What about shelters?

Judging from the shelled resorts in Zatoka, it can be dangerous everywhere in this area. The locals say that ‘awaiters’ [fifth columnists in Ukraine society who support the Russian invasion] pass information to Russians about the likely locations of the Ukrainian military.

“There are difficulties with shelters,” says Mykhailo Vaniushyn, owner of the resort where we stayed. “But our neighbour has a cellar. We’ve already started to make an agreement with him about this. We can bring some chairs and water there.” The building with the cellar 70 metres away from the hotel that Mykhailo told us about used to host a supermarket and a small entertainment centre for children. Now, everything is closed, including other shops in the area.

“Today, we had to go to Odesa for sea food,” say some guys from Vinnytsia, eating shrimps and drinking beer at the swimming pool near our hotel. “You can’t buy it here. First, we stopped in the nearby village of Karolino-Buhaz, which has a market, but there was no sea food there.”

They came here for a week. They used to go on vacation to Zatoka regularly before the full-scale war, so they can notice the changes: “The vibes are different with so few visitors. It looks like an abandoned town. But this is also what makes the place special — it is calm and peaceful.”

They don’t care about the shelter. “Be that as it may,” one says with a fatalistic tone.

“Well, we think we will hide somewhere in case there is shelling,” the other adds.

Motives to open debts and taxes

In 2022, Mykhailo Vaniushyn planned to invite tourists to his accommodation, and even cleaned and filled the pool. However, no people were willing to come. In 2023, he was also going to open the hotel, but due to the explosion at the Kakhovka hydro power plant, the sea become so dirty that the holiday season failed to launch again.

This year, he talked to a few other hotel owners — and decided to take a risk. He explains that paying off debts and the need to maintain his complex are what drives him. This requires money.

To our surprise, despite the military action and the impossibility for businessmen to work, the property tax has not been abolished. For Mykhailo, he must pay over 100,000 hryvnias a year (2,267 Euro). He already owes twice as much as this to the state.

Viktor, another owner of a small hotel right on the beach, tells of the same debt situation due to the real estate tax. At the time of our visit to Zatoka, he was not yet accepting tourists, but planned to start in a few weeks.

Viktor, another owner of a small hotel right on the beach, tells of the same debt situation due to the real estate tax. At the time of our visit to Zatoka, he was not yet accepting tourists, but planned to start in a few weeks.

We met Viktor in a deserted cafe-bar near the beach, where he came to talk to the owner about whether his future guests could eat there. He was happy to hear that cooks were coming the next day and there would be as many as five breakfast options. In total, the menu would include 50 different dishes.

The cafe bar owners, a couple from Odesa, admit they are taking a risk as they do not know the level of the tourist traffic, although they hope there will be many in July and August, since these months have always been popular among tourists in Zatoka. Still, they show limited enthusiasm for business success — like the other entrepreneurs we spoke to.

“How many people die in road accidents?” comes a rhetorical reply from one owner to the question of whether the tourists they expect will dare come. “And how many are from missiles or mines in the sea? Just compare the two.”

Beach suites on sale for 22 euros

In view of inflation and increase in the cost of utilities, prices in the cafe are up by 30 percent compared to the previous season of 2021.

Mykhailo, on the contrary, asks less for a room than before the full-scale invasion, due to the drop in demand. If a junior suite cost 1,650 hryvnias then (37 euros per night), now it costs 1,350 hryvnias (30 euros). We booked a standard double room in June for 950 hryvnias (22 euros).

At the hotel, Mykhailo also has a kitchen managed by his wife Kseniya. Compared to the selection from 2021, the menu is very limited, but quite budget-friendly. You can have lunch for 200 hryvnias (five euros). Kseniya cooks only one first course for lunch — soup or borscht, and offers a chop or a cutlet with buckwheat or potatoes for the second course. For breakfast, omelette, syrnyky - sweet cheese pancakes, or oatmeal, all at the cost of 60–80 hryvnias (1.4 - 1.8 euros), are offered.

Who will take responsibility for the risk?

“Since no one has cancelled our taxes, we have to work,” Mykhailo ponders in response to the question over whether a special permit for operating hotels and cafes from the authorities or the military is required. He says that no one has imposed any ban.

I ask whether entrepreneurs are afraid of responsibility, while they advertise their services, in case the Russians fire at them and someone gets hurt.

After a pause, Mykhailo refers to the Odesa experience and its open beaches. For some reason, the government allows the beaches to function, but does not do the same here. He claims that Odesa faces significantly more attacks.

“Of course, I can't say that I guarantee you one hundred percent safety,” he adds. “Even in peaceful times different things happen, though not in my hotel. There were cases when someone drowned in the sea or got sick on the beach. It's up to each person or family to decide whether to come here or not.”

But where should one go if they get sick or need to be rescued? Previously, an ambulance used to take people to Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi for emergency medical care. And now? The detour due to the closed bridge takes almost two hours. In such cases, Mykhailo advises going to the hospital in the village of Ovidiopol, located 15 minutes away.

Threat of sea mines

“It was my husband who decided to come here,” says Oleksandra, a resident of Kyiv region, whom we met on the way from the beach with two school-age kids. “The only inconvenient thing is that all the shops are closed, so you have to go somewhere by car.” At first, the husband came here with his son, as the woman says, “to find everything out”. They spent a week here. Having made sure that everything was calm and there were no attacks during that time, the woman and her daughter packed their things and came too.

“But I’ve decided: should there be an attack, my daughter and I will immediately pack our things and go home,” the woman adds.

However, in addition to attacks, there is still a threat of sea mines. During the years of the full-scale war in Odesa, there were cases of people dying from an explosion of a mine cast ashore after a storm.

Mykhailo says that nothing will make him give up his daily swim in the sea. In his opinion, swimming will not be completely safe even after the end of the war — WWII sea mines are still being found.

“In these conditions, how many more years won’t we be able to swim, then?” he asks rhetorically.

According to Mykhailo, at first, his hotel was most often booked by people from Kyiv. Now tourists from all over Ukraine are interested in taking a vacation here. Kharkiv residents, after the daily attacks at home, see Zatoka as a realistic opportunity to spend time in silence, says the hotel owner.

Our night in Zatoka passed peacefully. The only attack we suffered was bites from the famous local mosquitoes.

A few days before the publication, a message appeared on Telegram channels about an attack of ballistic missiles in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district.

I call up Mykhailo to ask how it’s going.

“That was in a neighbouring village. That's not ours,” he reassures me.

I ask if he is alright. He says that for him,everything is fine.