Repeated attacks this week on southern Ukrainian city stand in contrast with the vestiges of summer life in its beach areas
As the sun set over Arcadia, an area of beach clubs and bars on the outskirts of Odesa, a group of four friends in brightly coloured bikinis giggled as they towelled off after emerging from a dip in the Black Sea. At the nearby Prosecco Bar, two elderly men sipped sparkling wine from plastic flutes; at Ibiza, a seafront nightclub, a DJ played house beats.
It was possible for a moment to imagine that this was just the start of a normal summer night in this southern Ukrainian resort city, which usually draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, and where the partying used to go on until breakfast.
