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Remembrance action for victims of May 2, 2014 massacre held in Odessa

Participants in the action unfolded a large poster with the photos of victims of the massacre and laid flowers on a lawn in front of the entrance to Kulikovo Pole square

ODESSA, May 2. /TASS/. An action of remembrance for the victims of the May 2, 2014 massacre in the House of Trade Unions was held in Odessa on Monday but access to Kulikovo Pole square, on which the building is located, was still blocked at the time of reporting.

Participants in the action unfolded a large poster with the photos of victims of the massacre and laid flowers on a lawn in front of the entrance to Kulikovo Pole.

Heaps of flowers, helmets, St George’s ribbons and white-and-blue ribbons filled the ‘live memorial of remembrance’. Posters saying ‘Kazan remembers’ and ‘St Petersburg remembers’ were place on the flowers.

There were representatives of different countries among the participants and this could be seen from the plaques they were holding, which said ‘France’, ‘Israel’, ‘Italy’, ‘Germany’, and so on.

The protesters would sometime hear ‘Fascism shall not win’, ‘Odessa is a Russian city’, and ‘Odessa remembers’.

Mothers and family members of the people slaughtered by neo-Nazis and ultra-rightwing radicals exactly on this day two years ago arrived at the site of remembrance. They brought black hot air balloons along with them. People asked the law enforcers to let them walk towards the House of Trade Unions but the latter proved to be intransigent.

In the course of action the mourners released white doves into the skies.

Nikolai Skorik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing the Opposition Block came to Odessa, too, to the join the mourners on Kulikovo pole but he had to leave the action to avoid the conflict with activists of nationalistic forces and football ‘ultras’.

The official part of the action was over but people remained at the site and continued communicating with each other. A TASS reporter heard them chant ‘Murderers’ and ‘No forgetting, No forgiving’.

Tragedy in Odessa

On May 2, 2014, an armed conflict between the proponents and opponents of the new Ukrainian regime occurred in Odessa.

In the wake of it, opponents of the ‘euromaidan’ took shelter in the House of Trade Unions and the radicals set fire to the building.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry said later a total of 48 died in during the riots and about 250 others were wounded.

The authorities held an investigation and charged 22 persons with investigating the disorders. A half of them were arrested, all of the opponents of the euromaidan.

Official investigators did not find any testimonies to purported arson of the building.