In his impeccable French, Alexandre Garatchouk says of himself that he is an inhabitant of Odessa “pure sugars” : “I consider Ukraine my country, but France is no stranger to me.” If he uses the plural it is in reference to his multiple origins: Ukrainian, Polish, German, Belgian, Lithuanian… He doesn’t even know exactly where to stop the list. A true child of Odessa, the third city of Ukraine known for its cosmopolitanism. An idle engineer in this port city whose economy has been suffocated by the Russian invasion.
A former academic, Alexandre Garatchouk now works as a management consultant for the French group Atlantic, which specializes in climate engineering. But the factory is shut down. The 250 employees are still receiving their salaries despite the suspension of activities: “We need steel. We need components to run our production. So the restart of our activity is not for tomorrow, unfortunately, regrets Alexander Garatchouk. We can find solutions. Life in Ukraine teaches you to be resourceful.”
“The experience of shortages, it’s only been barely 20 years that we no longer have it. So, we will survive.”
Alexandre Garatchouk, climate engineering consultantat franceinfo
The Atlantic group manufactures water heaters, heat pumps… a whole range of solutions to reduce dependence on Russian gas for heating, sums up this resident of Odessa. A few days ago, near his factory, located at the exit of the city, Alexander Garachouk says a group of Russian fighters opened fire on Ukrainian soldiers. The dreaded infiltrators sent by Moscow: “They were intercepted, surrounded and captured at the end of a firefight which lasted, according to the guards of our factory, hours. It proves the fact that it was well thought out, well organized, that the infiltration of the Ukraine started, according to some sources, from around November-December 2021. Russia has carefully prepared its offensive. It is not at all the improvisation of a madman.”
These infiltrated commandos are today a fear that is difficult to perceive as this threat remains invisible. While waiting to attack the city, concludes Alexander Garachouk, Vladimir Putin wants to put the “bardak”the brothel in Russian.