MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Activists from the Young Guard of United Russia and the Volunteer Squad have organized a remembrance rally in memory of the people who died inside Odessa’s Trade Union House in 2014, the press service of the Young Guard of United Russia said.

"During the action, activists honored the memory of those who died in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014. More than 4,000 people took part in the commemorative events. In Moscow, more than 1,500 activists headed to the former Ukrainian Embassy with signs and photos of the victims," it said.

In St. Petersburg, more than 1,500 activists with signs marched to the building of the former Consulate General of Ukraine. "The tragedy in the Odessa Trade Union House is seared into our hearts. Forty-eight innocent people died by the hands of the Nazis in the burning building. Those trying to escape from the burning House of Trade Unions were being shot at, and medical personnel were kept away from them. This crime must not go unpunished. Thousands of Young Guard activists remember and mourn for those who died inside the Trade Union House," the head of the organization’s central headquarters, Alexander Amelin, said.

Odessa Trade Union House fire

On May 2, 2014, radicals from the Right Sector organization (outlawed in Russia) and the so-called Maidan self-defense forces attacked a tent encampment at Odessa’s Kulikovo Field public park, where city residents had been gathering signatures for a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine and granting Russian official language status. Some supporters of federalization took refuge inside the nearby Trade Union House but the radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire. According to official data from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 48 people died and more than 240 others were injured in the tragic events of that day.

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.