by Erik Froste

During the winter and spring of 2024, Odesa in Ukraine was my home for five months. By then, the full-scale invasion had been ongoing for two years. I was there on an EU assignment to determine what needs to be done to bring the country's maritime sector closer to Europe and prepare for future EU accession.

Since then, I have continued to travel back, often for one to two weeks at a time, to work with Ukrainian authorities and transport operators.

Sitting in meetings that are suddenly interrupted by wailing air-raid sirens, prompting a calm relocation of the discussion to a basement shelter, quickly becomes a surreal but necessary routine.

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