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Odessa to break free from extremist grip — Russian diplomat

Maria Zakharova expressed confidence that rightful punishment would sooner or later come to those who committed what she said was a "barbaric crime that has no statute of limitations"

MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Odessa will soon shake off the yoke of far-right extremists in Ukraine and become a free city again, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on the 10th anniversary of the massacre in the Odessa House of Trade Unions building.

"We are confident that the day is coming when Odessa will throw off the yoke of contemporary [far-right] activists and become a truly free city again where people of various nationalities can live in peace and accord," the Russian diplomat emphasized.

She also expressed confidence that rightful punishment would sooner or later come to those who committed what she said was a "barbaric crime that has no statute of limitations." According to Zakharova, the methods used by the "Nazis" a decade ago revealed "the cannibalistic nature of the existing Ukrainian regime."

While the probe into the events of May 2, 2014 Kiev had launched under pressure from international organizations has turned into a farce, incumbent Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who pledged to see that Ukraine fully abides by the law and the principle of the inevitability of punishment when he came to power in 2019, "has failed to deliver on his promises," Zakharova lamented.

Odessa massacre

Radicals from the Right Sector (banned in Russia) and the Maidan uprising’s so-called self-defense force attacked a tent camp on the Kulikovo Field in Odessa on May 2, 2014, where residents were collecting signatures for a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine and giving the Russian language status as an official language. Supporters of federalization took refuge in the House of Trade Unions, but the radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire. According to official data from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 48 people were killed, and more than 240 others were injured in those deadly events.

The government pinned the blame for the riots solely on the opponents of the uprising. However, the investigation, which lasted several years, could not prove their guilt in court. As a result, all those who were initially detained in the case were later acquitted.

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Foreign policy Maria Zakharova

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