VIENNA, May 2. /TASS/. The leadership of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year preferred to forget the tragedy that took place in the Trade Union House in Odessa ten years ago, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the organization Maxim Buyakevich said.
"It is also outrageous that the OSCE leadership has once again decided not to commemorate this terrible tragedy. Obviously, due to the fact that it cannot be used for anti-Russian propaganda purposes," the diplomat said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
According to him, there is no pressure on Kiev to investigate what happened. "Western sponsors and patrons of the Kiev regime continue to gloss over this terrible crime, which was committed under the slogan 'for the glory of Ukraine'," the envoy added.
On May 2, 2014, in Odessa, radicals from Right Sector (an organization banned in Russia) and the so-called Maidan self-defense forces attacked a tent site on Kulikovo Field, where Odessa residents were collecting signatures for a referendum on federalizing Ukraine and granting Russian-speaking regions the status of a state. Supporters of federalization took refuge in the House of Trade Unions, but the radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire. In these tragic events, according to the official data of the Ukrainian Internal Ministry, 48 people were killed and more than 240 injured.
The authorities declared that the instigators of the riots were exclusively "anti-Maidan" supporters. However, the investigation, which lasted several years, failed to prove their guilt in court. As a result, all those initially detained were acquitted.