Posted on 05/02/2015 11:58:20 AM PDT by tcrlaf
The emergency calls became increasingly desperate. “When are you coming? It’s already burning and there are people inside,” a woman told the fire brigade dispatcher. Minutes later, callers started describing how people were jumping from the upper floors.
“Have you lost your minds?” one man asked, his voice breaking. “There are women and children in the building!” another man yelled.
In one of the most deadly episodes in Ukraine’s turbulent 2014 power transition, 48 people were killed and hundreds injured on 2 May last year in the Black Sea port of Odessa. Street battles culminated in a fatal fire at Soviet-era building where hundreds of pro-Russia activists were barricaded in.
As the one-year anniversary approaches, multiple investigations have shed little light on events. There is not even an official list of the dead, and none of the pro-Ukraine activists involved have been put on trial. Many allege that investigators are dragging their feet for political reasons, possibly to cover up high-level complicity. At least one participant formally accused of murder and attempted murder remains free while awaiting trial.
The events in Odessa last year played a key role in the unfolding violence further east, where Russia-backed separatists rose up against Ukrainian authorities. Russian state-owned media characterised the day’s events as a “massacre” planned by “fascists” in Kiev, a narrative that has gained widespread traction.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
It is very sad about what happened in Odesa a year ago.
However...
it was the pro-Russian group who started it. People from the Ukrainain crowd were the first to die, but by the end of the day, the pro-Russians took the worst of it.
Btw, your chronology is off by saying that Odesa tragedy (on May 2) led to “civil war”. Russian FSB colonel Girkin advanced on Sloviansk in mid-April, and Russian specnaz taking over Ukrainian government buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk was even earlier. So it would make a nice narrative if Odesa preceded all that, but the dates don’t match.
Strelkov and other events may have predated by a few days, but it was Korsun, the Odessa Massacre, and finally the Mariupol Massacre, that convinced thousands of ethnic Russians that they had to fight, or die in the ethnic cleansing.
One HOUR of footage combined from numerous sources of that Odessa Massacre, one year ago this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=48&v=aO1A4aqgamA
So much drama in all this Russian myth-making.
- Korsun Bus Beating (no fatalities) happened on the same day that Russians were “ethically cleansing” Ukrainians on Maidan.
- in Odesa, it was the pro-Russian mob that started it.
- Mariupol Massacre must be the reference to the shelling of the city by Russians in January 2015 killing 30, injuring 100.
Both Odesa and Mariupol (i think i know the event you were going for) followed Russian troops storming Ukrainian administrative buildings, the murder of Horlivka city councillor Volodymyr Rybak for protecting the Ukrainian flag, beatings and death of a Ukraine supporter during a Donetsk rally, beatings (no fatalities) of Ukrainian supporters during the Kharkiv rally.
You know that scene in Matrix-2 where the guy in restaurant talks about cause and effect, the Russian narrative that “atrocities” by Ukrainians led to war is the exact opposite of that. The most that can be argued here is that the mentioned “atrocities” led to the 90% result on referendum. But even then, one, 90% result is not real, and two, war was already underway before Odesa and Mariupol.
Here's my cockamamie story about ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in Russia:
Feb 15 2015 - Thousands of ethic Ukrainians have been killed and thousands more were injured in Russia after a government-sanctioned day of violence against people of Ukrainian background. Anyone with a Ukrainian complexion or speaking with a Ukrainian accent was targeted by gangs of Russian nationalists roaming the cities of Moscow, StPetersburg, as well as scores of other Russian cities. "Kill khokhols, save Russia!" - yelled the spokesman for one of the gangs, before adding that he's for a peaceful coexistence of the two nations , as long as one of them doesn't exist.
At least five 2-year old boys were crucified by the Russians. Throughout the country, hospitals were instructed not to accept people with any kind of injuries. "It is better to let some Russians die than to let an injured Ukrainian live." - said the director of Moscow's Alexseev Hospital No. 1.
On Monday, the Liberal Democrat fraction in Duma will be putting forth a motion to outlaw blue and yellow colors.
Feel free to use it as a real news story :)
Russian attacked a peaceful march.
“They were sparked when a group of masked pro-Russia activists allegedly led by Sergei Dolzhenkov, a former police officer known as “Captain Kakao”, attacked a pro-Ukraine march mostly made up of football fans. The pro-Russia men were armed with clubs, fireworks, homemade grenades and guns. The first person to die was 27-year-old Igor Ivanov, a pro-Ukraine member of the extreme nationalist organisation Right Sector. He was gunned down on Odessa’s main street, Deribasovskaya, lined with cafes, bars and restaurants and usually thronged with tourists.”
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