Recalling the heyday of the iconic Odesa seaside hotel destroyed by a Russian Onyx rocket

Odesa restaurateur Savva Libkin recalls early days of the Odesa Hotel and expresses his confidence that Odesa, the destroyed hotel, and the sea terminal will flourish again.

"Once upon a time, in a completely different life, before the era of Facebook and iPhone, I was with my friends at the opening of the Kempinski Hotel. A casino, a huge swimming pool, a restaurant, a rooftop bar, many stars of the beau monde of the time, and speeches by city officials. The hotel was built in the port’s harbor, and soon the name Kempinski changed to Odesa, and then the hotel turned into a dead concrete box, built as a monument to mismanagement in the city's most popular location,” he recalled.

“Tonight Russian bastards bombed the place. Sooner or later this place will flourish and a monument to those who died at the beginning of the World War III will appear there. The war whereso far only the Ukrainian soldiers are resisting the Russian fascists. And the whole world hopes that the war will not get them..." he wrote.

Two people have been confirmed dead as a result of the Russian attack on Odesa, as of 13:00 on Sept. 25. They were found under the rubble of a grain storage facility hit by a missile.