MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Around a thousand activists from the United Russian Young Guard (MGER) and the Combat Brotherhood Volunteer Company held a demonstration in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow on the ninth anniversary of the Odessa tragedy, the MGER press service said on Tuesday.

"We hold the event Odessa. We Remember every year to remember those killed by the Nazis in the Trade Union House in Odessa on May 2, 2014. What happened nine years ago was a horrific tragedy. Everyone responsible for it must be punished to the full extent of the law. We remember Odessa, we remember Donbass!" said Anton Demidov, the MGER leader.

The activists held portraits of those killed inside the Trade Union House. They laid flowers and spelled out the word "remember" in candles.

On May 2, 2014, Right Sector (outlawed in Russia) radicals and the so-called Maidan self-defense forces attacked a tent encampment at Odessa’s Kulikovo Field public park, where city dwellers were collecting signatures for a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine as well as granting the Russian language official status. Some of the federalization advocates took shelter inside the nearby Trade Union House but the mob of radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire, blocking the exits. According to official data from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 48 people died and more than 240 others were injured.

The authorities blamed the unrest entirely on "anti-Maidan" activists. However, the investigation, which lasted several years, was unable to prove their guilt in court. As a result, all those initially detained were ultimately acquitted.