Odesa Activist Demian Hanul Buried Amid Ongoing Russian Attacks

The week in Odesa was eventful: Demian Hanul was buried, and his killer was sent to prison. Gennadiy Trukhanov gave his report, and the occupiers continued to terrorize the city. Read more about this and other things in Intent's digest.

Accent of the week

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

• On March 14, at about 10:30 a.m., the special line 102 received a report that an unknown man had shot a passerby in the Primorsky district of the city.
• During a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that Odesa activist Demian Hanul had been killed.
• Very quickly, a video of the moment of the murder appeared on social media, where an unknown person made a control shot at the activist's head.
• The detainee, Serhiy Shalaev, served in the military unit A0139 as a senior lieutenant.
• The 28th Brigade named after the Knights of the Winter Campaign commented on this information: "The suspect, Senior Lieutenant Shalaev Serhiy Serhiyovych, was transferred on 13.07.2024 from military unit A0139, admitted to the reserve company officer's TTO. After the transfer, he was treated almost all the time. He was not involved in the area of combat missions. He did not return from vacation to the place of service and is considered to be in the reserve company since February 22, 2025."
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had been informed of all the stages and instructed the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Acting Prosecutor General to engage all necessary forces and means to establish all the facts. At the same time, there was no message from Odesa authorities in the media or on social media. Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov's page is completely silent on the matter, the telegram channel of the head of the Regional Military Administration Oleg Kiper, as well as the Facebook page of the Chairman of the Regional Council Grigory Didenko, only reposted the message of the President of Ukraine about the report of the Minister of Internal Affairs.
• On March 16, Serhiy Shalayev was imposed a preventive measure in the form of detention without bail.
• On May 19, Demyan Hanul said goodbye in Odesa.

Report by Gennadiy Trukhanov

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

• On March 15, Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov reported on the results of his work for 2024 in the presence of military officials and the press.
• Much of the report is devoted not to what the mayor did last year, but to the statement of statistical data. The document contains information that can hardly be attributed to the activities of local government in general and the city of Odesa in particular.
• In the document, Gennadiy Trukhanov avoids talking about the problems and pain points of the city.
• Unfortunately, the report contains errors.
• In general, the report is structured not as a report of the head of the community, but as a report of the entire municipality, more details are available here.

Terror in Odesa continues

Photo: State Emergency Service in Odesa region

• The city of Chornomorsk was cut off from electricity due to Russian drones hitting power supply facilities on the night of March 15.
• On the night of March 17, Russian drones attacked Odesa region, damaging a pre-school and leaving 500 residents of Odesa district without electricity.
• On the night of March 21, the enemy massively attacked Odesa and the region with attack drones. Civilian infrastructure was damaged, including a residential high-rise building, a shopping center and shops. Three people were injured, including minors. As a result of the Russian attack, powerful fires broke out in three locations. Local emergency power outages were also imposed in Prymorskyi, Peresypskyi and Kyivskyi districts of Odesa.

Hype around the Odesa port

Collage: Intent

This week, Odesa was alarmed by an article in The New York Times that reads: "Aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that they were concerned that Mr. Trump might grant Mr. Putin's other wishes for parts of Ukraine, possibly including the critical port of Odesa."

On March 18, Intent quoted Andriy Kovalenko, head of the National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, as saying that information published by The New York Times that US President Donald Trump was allegedly considering the possibility of transferring the port of Odesa to the Russian Federation was misinterpreted.

In particular, he emphasized that the NYT article did not say at all that Donald Trump might agree to transfer the port of Odesa to Russian control, but only noted that some officials were afraid of this.

This is Andriy Kovalenko's direct speech, quoted by TSN: "No one can transfer any port to Russia. Moreover, the article says that unnamed "Ukrainian officials" are worried that during the US-Russian dialogue, "Putin's territorial claims, possibly with the port of Odesa, may be considered. Again, some unknown sources, insights, hype. As I said, there is a lot of this and there will be a lot more. But such stuff mostly has nothing to do with reality."

Archaeological excavations on Primorsky Boulevard

Archival photo/Intent

• Students of the South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after Ushynsky, together with specialists from the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, have begun a georadar survey of the central part of Prymorsky Boulevard. Its goal is to find the remains of the foundation of Khadzhibey Castle, which was stormed in 1789 by de Ribas's troops.
• As the rector explained, the students are using special equipment that works on the principle of ultrasound. It scans the soil, recording electromagnetic waves reflected from underground objects.
• "This is not a result, but preliminary signs of underground obstacles, the nature of which is yet to be determined. We know for sure and see that there are so-called anomalies. An anomaly is the reaction of electromagnetic waves to an underground, let's say, accumulation of stones, to the difference in soil density. It is felt based on the experience of previous years, but this time it is very, let's say, very active," said Andriy Krasnozhen.

Ігор Льов