This city is the capital of Odessa region, a port on Odessa Bay of the Black Sea . The territory is 160 square km. Population 1,122,000 (1995). Odessa was once a third city in the Russian Empire after Moscow and St. Petersburg . Now it is t he third largest Ukrainian city after Kiev and Kharkov , a major industrial, cultural, scientific, and resort center in the Northern Black Sea region. Russians, Ukrainians, and Jews predominate in Odessa 's cosmopolitan population.