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Security to be beefed up in Odessa on May 2 and 9

The authorities plan to engage more law enforcement officers for patrolling, speaker of the Odessa regional military administration Sergey Bratchuk said

MOSCOW, May 1. /TASS/. The authorities of Odessa intend to tighten security in the city on May 2, a yearly date commemorating the tragedy in the House of Trade Unions, as well as on May 9, whereas the time of the curfew will remain unchanged - from 00:00 to 05:00 a.m., speaker of the Odessa regional military administration Sergey Bratchuk said on Monday.

"Public order maintenance will be beefed up," he was quoted as saying by the Klimenko Time media outlet. The authorities plan to engage more law enforcement officers for patrolling, Bratchuk noted.

On May 2, 2014, radicals of the Right Sector (banned in Russia) and the so-called Maidan self-defense forces attacked a tent camp in the Kulikovo field public garden, where Odessa residents were collecting signatures for a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine and on giving the Russian language official state status. Some supporters of federalization took refuge in the House of Trade Unions, but the radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire. In those tragic events, according to official data from the 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 acquitted.