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Putin stresses world 'has no right' to forget tragedies such as the 2014 Odessa massacre

"Three years ago, a terrible tragedy happened in Odessa, when Ukrainian radical nationalists herded defenseless people into the Trade Unions Building and then burned them alive", Putin said
People commemorating victims of the 2 May 2014 trade unions building fire in Odessa Mikhail Sokolov/TASS
People commemorating victims of the 2 May 2014 trade unions building fire in Odessa
© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

SOCHI, May 2. /TASS/. The global community is obliged never to forget such tragedies as the 2014 massacre in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a press conference following his talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"As you may remember, three years ago, a terrible tragedy happened in Odessa, when Ukrainian radical nationalists herded defenseless people into the Trade Unions Building and then burned them alive. Those responsible have not been established yet. The global community has no right to forget this so that such events do not happen again in the future," Putin said.
The Russian president also mentioned another tragic event that occurred in Ukraine, when an observer from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) was killed in a landmine blast. Putin stressed that such events hampered peacemaking efforts and fanned tensions.
"This is why there is a need for an impartial investigation to find out what happened," Putin added.
On April 23, an OSCE SMM vehicle drove over a mine near the village of Prishib in the Lugansk People’s Republic. As a result, an American paramedic was killed and another two observers, citizens of the Czech Republic and Germany, suffered wounds. According to the Lugansk People's Republic security sources, "a Ukrainian secret subversive group was active" in the Prishib area.