MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform-For Life party who now leads the Other Ukraine movement, has exposed who was behind the May 2, 2014, tragedy in Odessa in an exclusive interview with TASS.
Medvedchuk pointed out that in a premeditated act of intimidation, the Kiev regime led by then acting Ukrainian President Alexander Turchinov burned people alive inside Odessa’s Trade Union House. "Ten days before the tragedy, Turchinov chaired a meeting on preparations for the mass murder of coup opponents in Odessa. [Then] Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Security Service of Ukraine chief Valentin Nalivaichenko and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andrey Parubiy took part in the discussions. The consultations on the operation also involved Igor Kolomoisky, head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional state administration," he specified.
From the very start, they decided to carry out the operation on May 2, when a football match was set to take place in Odessa, which is why numerous members of fan groups and some 500 radicals from the Right Sector organization (outlawed in Russia) had arrived in the city. Medvedchuk noted that transportation had been provided to the perpetrators by Avakov, Parubiy, Kolomoisky and his henchman "Igor Palitsha, who led the operation on the ground and was appointed as Odessa Region governor for its ‘success’ on May 6, 2014."
Medvedchuk said that the criminal group’s actions were steered by outside forces who still rule Ukraine, "preventing the Ukrainian conflict from abating because they are vitally interested in it."
Those who organized, led and participated in the operation to burn people alive on May 2, 2014, must be brought to justice in Odessa, the politician added.
Odessa Trade Union House fire
On May 2, 2014, radicals from the Right Sector organization (outlawed in Russia) and the so-called Maidan self-defense forces attacked a tent encampment at Odessa’s Kulikovo Field public park, where city residents had been gathering signatures for a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine and granting Russian official language status. Some supporters of federalization took refuge inside the nearby Trade Union House but the radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire. According to official data from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 48 people died and more than 240 others were injured in the tragic events of that day.
The authorities blamed the unrest entirely on "anti-Maidan" activists. However, the investigation, which lasted several years, was unable to prove their guilt in court. As a result, all those initially detained were ultimately acquitted.