Five years of the tragedy in Odessa: people were not found guilty of death, disputes continue

2 May marks five years since the tragic events in Odessa. As a result of a street confrontation between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian activists in 2014, 48 people died, most of them burned down in the House of Trade Unions. The official investigation has not yet been completed, writes Radio Liberty.

Фото: Depositphotos

Memorial rallies were held on Thursday, May 2, on Kulikovo Field and Cathedral Square. In places where mourning events were held, verbal skirmishes arose from time to time between people with pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian views, who were separated by a “living corridor” of law enforcement officers. More than two and a half thousand police officers, National Guardsmen and employees of the Security Service of Ukraine are ensuring public order in Odessa these days.

About ten criminal cases are being investigated in connection with the Odessa events. In the fall of 2017, the Ilyichevsk City Court of the Odessa Region acquitted 19 Anti-Maidan activists due to inconclusive evidence of their guilt. What or who is preventing the investigation from bringing the “May 2 Case” to an end? This question is answered by a direct participant in those events, the head of the public organization “Nebaiduzhi” (“Concerned”) Sergei Sternenko:

“Part of the investigation was completed in 2015 year. And this case was sent to the court. It concerns pro-Russian participants and two Russian citizens who took part in events in the center of Odessa, on Grecheskaya Square. ”

According to him, the events of May 2 took place in two places - they began precisely on Greek Square with an attack by pro-Russian activists on the “For a United Ukraine” march. These defendants in the case received 19 acquittals and, accordingly, are not being prosecuted by law enforcement agencies today. The prosecutor's office filed an appeal against this court decision. And while this appeal was being filed, some of the accused disappeared, and another part stopped attending court hearings.

“As a lawyer, I can say that it was futile to challenge the court’s decision in this case. Our police together with the prosecutor's office deliberately and deliberately failed the investigation. This was done deliberately, in my opinion, in order to remove suspicion from representatives of law enforcement agencies who were involved in these events,” says Sternenko.

He also noted that so far not a single law enforcement officer who took part in the 2 events on May on the side of pro-Russian activists was not only prosecuted, but not even dismissed from service.

The investigation continues, which concerns the events on the Kulikovo Field, the actions of firefighters and individual leaders at the time of the police (later it was renamed the police. - Ed.).

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“However, based on these episodes, I assess the investigation as absolutely hopeless. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian authorities did nothing to bring the investigation to the appropriate level and bring all those responsible to justice. And with this today we give carte blanche for manipulation and speculation regarding this topic of the Russian Federation, which is directly and directly involved in the events of May 2 in Odessa,” says the activist.

He believes that Russia is directly involved in the events, since interceptions of telephone conversations were also published with the coordinators of the so-called “Kulikovo Pole” movement, who communicated, in particular, with the current advisers to Russian President Vladimir Putin. We are talking primarily about Sergei Glazyev.

“The fact that Moscow is related to these events is indicated by the role of Russian propaganda media, which constantly fueled the theme of the so-called “Russian spring” in Odessa. And besides, many Russian citizens in the spring of 2014, even before the events of May 2, arrived in our city and conducted briefings and training for local pro-Russian activists here,” he notes.

Sternenko notes that among them was Anton Raevsky, a neo-Nazi from St. Petersburg who does not hide his pro-Hitler views. He was expelled from Ukraine in April 2014 because he was preparing an attempt on Sternenko’s life, and later fought as part of illegal armed groups in the so-called “DPR.”

“And in the Russian media, Raevsky said that, indeed, on May 2, there were a lot of Russians on the Kulikovo field, that they specially came to Odessa to train local activists. Their plans included suppressing any pro-Ukrainian movements, holding a referendum on the separation of the region from Ukraine and creating the so-called “Odessa People's Republic”. That is, Odessa had to move according to the scenario that we then observed in Donetsk and Lugansk,” he notes.

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Sternenko also said that at the beginning of 2018, three attempts were made on him and there is no progress in any of the cases.

“In the first case, no one has been identified or detained. According to the second, only the perpetrator who shot me in the back of the head and whom I myself was able to detain was in the dock. In the third attempt, when I was wounded in the arm, one of the attackers was wounded by me, and the second died because I had to defend myself and my girlfriend. Likewise, there is no progress in this case, although the perpetrators, organizers, and some other persons who were involved in this crime have been identified. On March 17 of this year, the perpetrator of the third attempt, who was wounded, Alexander Isaikul, left the territory of Ukraine, he went to Moldova and did not return, that is, he actually fled,” he says.

Sternenko also says that after the events of 2014, the relationship between the Ukrainian and pro-Russian movements in Odessa deteriorated.

“Although it should be said that structurally today pro-Russian organizations are not represented in Odessa; rather, these are chaotic and periodic gatherings of Russian supporters during significant events for them, for example, April 10 - the Day of the Liberation of Odessa from German and Romanian occupation, as well as 2 and May 9,” he says.

According to him, there is serious tension with these supporters of the “Russian world”, and as long as Russian aggression continues, this tension can only grow.

“The issue of security in the region today largely depends on pro-Ukrainian forces, as it was in 2014, when law enforcement agencies withdrew from resolving the situation, and citizens were forced to independently defend their city from the Russian threat. I would really not like a repetition of these events, but, unfortunately, the conditions that led to the events of May 2 continue to exist today,” says Sergei Sternenko, head of the “Concerned” organization.

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Diametrically opposite view of the tragic events in Odessa Alexandra Golubawhich, before 2014, was a member of the Communist Party, now banned in Ukraine, and now is a member of the political council of the presidium of the Union of Left Forces of Ukraine:

“In my opinion, this event, this crime, has two forms. First: precisely as a purely criminal crime. And second: as a turning point and quite serious moment in the history of Ukraine, which has a long-term effect. If we are talking about that event as a criminal offense and why today the investigation has not been carried out as it should, the culprits have not been named, then I have only one reasonable and logical answer to this: that someone from the acting authorities are directly involved in this tragedy,” says Golub.

He notes that many facts speak to the involvement of the authorities in the tragedy. Golub has many questions about the actions of the police, fire brigade, medical institutions and local authorities on this day, which could prevent such a development.

“One more thing: we know very well that the people who came to Odessa to restore “Ukrainian order” from nationalist organizations were always under the control of the Ukrainian special services. Of course, this operation was developed by one of the SBU officers, and he received the order to carry it out from someone from the then political leadership of the country,” he notes.

Among the main defendants in the “May 2 Case” are, in particular, the former head of the regional Emergency Situations Department Vladimir Bodelan and the former deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Odessa Region Dmitry Fuchedzhi, who fled to Russia and received citizenship there. Golub believes that Russia took such a step because it understands that “these people can become scapegoats, and, of course, even if a certain part of the blame lies with them, they followed the orders of higher Ukrainian leaders.”

“Therefore, they understand perfectly well that their leadership would try, if they were in Ukraine, to remove them so that they would not be able to tell the truth. Or all the problematic aspects of the authorities’ reaction to this situation will be blamed on them, and they will bear responsibility, while the real culprits will escape this responsibility. The change of power at the level of the President of Ukraine, which has occurred, I think that one way or another, regardless of the actions of Vladimir Zelensky himself and his administration, will give impetus to the development of this matter,” says Golub.

“You see, for many, Ukraine, which we knew, Ukraine Amosova, Glushko, Paton, figuratively speaking, burned in the Odessa House of Trade Unions. Today we have another country, and if we don’t want a further process of spreading, then, of course, all questions must be answered, ”said one of the leaders of the Union of Left Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Golub.

• Recall, after the change of power in Ukraine in 2014, Anti-Maidan activists set up a tent camp in Kulikovo Field Square in central Odessa in protest. There, in particular, they held a fee for holding a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine, and advocated granting the status of the state language to the Russian language.
• Ukrainian nationalists, including Euromaidan participants, as well as football ultras from Kharkov and Odessa, held a march “For the Unity of Ukraine” in the central part of Odessa on May 2, 2014.
• In the course of two actions, a fight began on Kulikovo Pole between the participants of both camps. The tent city was destroyed, and some people hid in the House of the trade union. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the building, which caused a fire. 48 people became victims of the tragedy that day, more than 250 suffered.

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