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Russia suggests UN SC adopt statement on Odessa tragedy - Russia's UN envoy

Churkin expects that the document will be adopted after the Security Council's Thursday session, convened at Ukraine's request
 Vitaly Churkin
Vitaly Churkin

THE UNITED NATIONS, April 27. /TASS/. Russia has circulated at the UN Security Council a draft statement supporting implementation of the Minsk peace agreements and calling to investigate the tragic events in Odessa on 2 May 2014, Russia's Permanent Representative at the UN Vitaly Churkin told reporters on Wednesday.

Churkin expects that the document will be adopted after the Security Council's Thursday session, convened at Ukraine's request.

"We have circulated a very simple draft statement which underlines the need to implement the Minsk peace agreements and also contains an appeal to investigate tragic events in Odessa on 2 May 2014, when 48 people were burnt alive," Churkin said. "We wonder what the reaction of the Security Council's members will be."

Answering a question when the Security Council is expected to adopt the statement, the Russian envoy said "tomorrow, after the session."

The city of Odessa saw riots on May 2, 2014, during which Right Sector militants (the movement recognized as an extremist organization in Russia) and so-called "Maidan self-defense" militants from Kiev set ablaze the Trade Unions House, where their opponents had taken shelter, and a tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukraine's federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian. The attackers did not let anyone leave the burning Trade Unions House building.

Around 48 people were reported dead and 247 injured in the clashes and in the fire in the Trade Unions House.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine’s President Pyotr Poroshenko said that he had instructed the country’s diplomatic mission at the UN to file a request for holding an open session at the Security Council in the wake of "a worsening situation in Donbass and Russia’s failure to implement the Minsk accords."

The session is scheduled to start at 7.00 pm GMT on April 28.