Ten years since the tragedy in Odessa

May 2, 2024, marks ten years since the tragedy at the Trade Unions House. On this day, the Euromaidan supporters committed atrocities against those who opposed the armed government coup perpetrated by nationalists in Kiev. According to official statistics alone, at least 48 people died during these tragic events, including 42 who were killed or burned alive at the Trade Unions House, as well as another six who perished during the clashes on the streets of Odessa.

The first armed clashes between activists and nationalist punitive battalions were already taking place across Donbass in the spring of 2014, with the entire country teetering on the edge of a civil war. But people of Odessa believed that they could succeed in asserting their rights through peaceful means. This is what led them to speak out against the blanket policy of Ukrainisation, the promotion of neo-Nazism and the total ban on anything Russian promoted by the pro-Western henchmen who came to power after a government coup.

The people of Odessa gathered in mass protests calling on the authorities to grant Russian the status of a second state language, to implement an administrative and territorial reform, to preserve the region's historical and cultural heritage, to hold a referendum on key domestic and foreign policy issues, to cancel the pension reform, to ensure that the governor remains an elected official, to introduce the election of judges, and to hold regional and city council elections. However, the new Kiev authorities preferred to turn a blind eye to those who disagreed with them.

The activists responded by setting up a tent camp near the Trade Unions House on Kulikovo Polye Square and launched a protest campaign based on these demands saying that they would not leave until they get their way. This encampment emerged as a magnet for all those who opposed the Euromaidan and its consequences.

The radicals & nationalists openly threatened the dissenters with reprisals and were looking for a pretext to start a bloodbath.

On May 2, 2014, at 5 pm, Odessa’s FC Chernomorets was scheduled to play against FC Metalist Kharkov as part of the Ukrainian football championships. Football fans from an ultras club and Euromaidan supporters announced a March for Ukraine’s Unity several days before that, with the procession beginning at the city’s Sobornaya Square.

An unscheduled train carrying FC Metalist Kharkov ultras arrived at a station not far from Kulikovo Polye Square in the early hours of May 2. In addition to this, other Euromaidan supporters had already arrived in Odessa from other regions of Ukraine, including the Maidan Self-Defence leaders and members, fresh from taking part in the tragic events in Kiev. Just like the Right Sector activists, they stayed at health resorts and hotels in and around the city. Apart from these types of accommodation, many nationalists rented apartments in Odessa.

Radicals started setting up checkpoints around Odessa. Andrey Paruby, the notorious head of Ukraine’s Security Council, visited these facilities.

On the day of the tragedy, it all started with a football match. It is important to remember that the ultras were part of Ukraine’s radical right and played a significant role in overthrowing the legitimate government in Kiev. After the government coup, the radicals joined the forces which attacked those who opposed the pro-Maidan positions.

Those who gathered on Kulikovo Polye Square thought that the arrival of these football fans could be the harbinger of an effort to dismantle the tent camp and break the protest movement. People started assembling at the intersection with Zhukovskogo Street at about 1:30 pm to defend themselves from the expected attack.

According to the Ukrainian media controlled by the Kiev regime, pro-Russian provocateurs attacked what they presented as a peaceful procession of would-be Ukrainian patriots, while being outnumbered by a factor of 2.5. But the outfits and gear of the Euromaidan supporters betrayed their true intentions. Many nationalists carried firearms and Molotov cocktails.

The Kulikovo Polye defenders wanted to use a parallel street to be able to defend their camp if the column with the radicals turned their way. However, the anti-Maidan crowd found itself on Grecheskaya Square where the first clashes with the nationalists took place, leaving 6 people dead. Several people who used firearms were identified and faced criminal charges. However, that did not produce any tangible results. In fact, the Kiev regime has been treating Euromaidan supporters who were involved in killing people as heroes.

After the clashes, those who opposed the Euromaidan withdrew to the Kulikovo Polye camp and decided to barricade themselves in the Trade Unions House.

The first groups of football fans arrived there by 7:20 pm and started destroying tents and setting them on fire. Five FC Chernomorets fans broke into the Trade Unions House, carrying a Ukrainian flag and setting part of the barricades surrounding it on fire.

The radicals broke the door and invaded the offices of the Trade Unions House, leading to a heated confrontation, accompanied by screams and sounds of intense fighting.

The nationalists threw petrol bombs which landed on the building’s stairs, lobby and penetrated its windows.

Euromaidan supporters cheered as they finished off people trying to get away from the blaze that was ravaging the building.

Another group of radicals arrived in Odessa to support the nationalists after the evnts at the Trade Unions House. In fact, the Euromaidan supporters mounted an effort to exterminate their political opponents.

It is quite telling that no one was held accountable for these crimes, with the investigation into the May 2, 2014, events, turning into a farce. The court returned the indictment to the prosecutor’s office several times due to various shortcomings, while judges recused themselves four times causing further delays.

There were also attempts to turn everything upside down by designating the anti-Maidan activists who suffered at the hands of the nationalists as the actual culprits. These efforts went hand in hand with a blatant attempt by the radicals to influence the proceedings by staging riots, disrupting court hearings, attacking lawyers, judges, defendants and their families. Moreover, several politicians openly supported the extermination of people in Odessa and derided those who lost their lives there in their public statements.

After these events, the radicals who came to power following the government coup in Ukraine expanded their terror campaign, which resulted in a wave of political killings across the country. They targeted prominent activists. Writer and opposition journalist Oles Buzina was one of them. The West keeps pretending that nothing happened on May 2, 2014, while the Kiev authorities have received carte blanche to use terrorist methods in the pursuit of their goals.

In his Facebook post on May 2, 2020, presented as a screenshot here, Vladimir Zelensky wrote that “the state must do everything to ensure that all circumstances related to this terrible day are investigated in an effective and impartial manner.” He even wrote that “Our challenge is to act together to do everything so that no one in Ukraine lose their lives for the sake of achieving any ideological or political would-be objectives ever again.” However, Vladimir Zelensky failed to live up to his promises, and everyone knows what the Kiev regime stands for these days.

From the comment by Russia's MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on marking 10 years since the May 2, 2014, tragedy in Odessa:

Today, as we pay tribute to the victims of the bloody reprisals in Odessa, we have no doubt that sooner or later those who perpetrated and inspired this barbaric crime, which has no statute of limitations, will have to face the punishment they deserve.

We are confident that the day will soon come when Odessa gets rid of the yoke and oppression imposed on it by present-day Banderites and emerges once again as a city of genuine freedom, with people of various ethnic backgrounds living side by side in peace and accord.