SEVASTOPOL, May 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian authorities are obviously trying to silence the public or blot out the events that took place in Odessa in 2014, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.
She noted that May 2 marked three years since the Odessa tragedy.
"The barbaric arson committed by Ukrainian extremists claimed the lives of 48 civilians who had taken shelter inside the Trade Unions House," Zakharova said. "Those people merely dared to express their civic position. And they tried to keep radicals and ultra-nationalists away from their land."
"We have repeatedly said that those responsible for that inhuman crime have gone unpunished. Over the past three years the authorities in Kiev have proved either unable or unwilling to carry out a thorough and impartial investigation of that crime that might clear up all circumstances. To a far greater extent they are concerned not about prosecuting those guilty but about making people forget."
Each time on the eve of the Odessa tragedy an unprecedented amount of military hardware and militants from radical nationalist groups is brought to Odessa.
"Those who wish to pay respects to the victims are not allowed to approach the Trade Unions House and the foreign journalists who go to Ukraine for covering the memorial ceremonies are stopped at the border and turned back. The radically-minded elements in Ukraine stop at nothing to erase the memories of those events."