War in Ukraine also felt in ‘Little Odessa’ in New York: “We prefer to call ourselves international than Russian”

Nowhere outside of Ukraine and Russia is the war more sensitive than in Brighton Beach, a suburb of New York. In the 1990s, the southernmost tip of Brooklyn was discredited by the Russian mafia, which also had ties with Antwerp. In 2022, the war in Ukraine is the only topic of conversation in ‘Little Odessa’. “Anyone with a heart disapproves of Putin’s invasion.”

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