Ukrainian nationalist enforcer, Demyan Ganul, shot dead in the street days after damning ECHR ruling on Odessa Massacre.
the killing raises questions about justice and revenge and a man whose legacy is stained with blood.
Good day, spectators,
Interesting news coming out of Odessa today. Ukrainian ‘activist’ and vlogger, Demyan Ganul, was shot dead in broad daylight in the middle of the town.
At first glance, this seems like a straightforward story: a well-known activist, blogger was killed, and authorities are scrambling to find the culprit. But scratch the surface, and a far more interesting narrative emerges.
who was he?
Ganul, 31, was a prominent figure in Ukraine’s nationalist movement. He participated in the 2014 clashes against Ukrainians with Russian sympathies in Odessa. He was quite well known for his role in charity fundraisers for the military and controversial campaigns to dismantle Soviet WW2 monuments.
If you would read the Kyiv Independent’s report on this then you might get the image that he was a benevolent guy but he wasn’t at all. Ganul was a bully. He was notorious for forcibly conscripting men into the Ukrainian military, often beating them up and dragging them to recruitment centres. His methods were brutal, his ideology extreme, and his legacy deeply divisive.
Watch: Ganul kidnaps a man a drags him to be conscripted.
Quite simply, Ganul was not a hero but a nationalist enforcer—a man who used violence to impose his vision of Ukraine. And now, his violent life has ended in a violent death.
Watch: (Graphic) Ganul is given an coup de grace after being gunned down in the streets of Odessa.
The Odessa Massacre and the European Court Ruling
Ganul’s death comes just one day after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a landmark ruling on the Odessa massacre of the 2nd of May, 2014. In the case of Vyacheslavova and Others v. Ukraine, the court found that Ukrainian authorities had failed to prevent the violence, stop it once it began, or conduct an effective investigation.
The ruling is a damning indictment of Ukraine’s handling of the massacre, in which 48 people—mostly Ukrainians who leaned towards Russia—were killed in a fire at the Trade Unions House.
The most curious thing is though is that Ganul was there, outside of the building, likely throwing in bricks and Molotov cocktails into the building alongside other nationalists, neo Nazis and football ultras. So it’s a little bit strange, right?
Was this a coincidence? Or... is somebody trying to tie up some loose ends?
violent end for a violent man.
Ganul’s death has certainly sparked debate about the motives behind his killing. Some suggest it could be retaliation from someone he forcibly conscripted or a victim of his nationalist bullying. Others see it as a political act, tied to the ECHR ruling and his role in the Odessa massacre.
I’m not so sure. As I mentioned above, I think this may indeed be some entity trying to tie up loose ends. Someone who doesn't want more information about that day in Odessa coming to light—but I've always been quite cynical.
In any case, let’s be clear: Ganul was no martyr. He was the personification of the darker side of Ukrainian nationalism—a side that Western media often ignores or whitewashes.
To top it all off, despite the fact he was highly enthusiastic about forced conscription and he personally dragged unwilling men to be conscripted, he never signed up once himself and has never been to war.
This story is a reminder that the truth is usually more complicated—and more uncomfortable—than the headlines suggest. Ganul’s death, the ECHR ruling, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine are all pieces of a larger puzzle—one that legacy media often fails to fully explore.
As always, it’s the people of Ukraine who bear the brunt of this violence and division. And as long as Western media continues to whitewash the realities of this conflict, the truth will remain buried.
Update: It seems that, while the truth is being suppressed, this case was indeed an act of revenge by none other than the father of the man who you see with a bloody face in the first image in this article. The same man who was dragged away to war and ultimately to his death in the video following that image. The father himself had fought in the Ukrainian armed forces and received 30 wounds (shrapnel). It seems there was some kind of agreement that the father would go to war instead of the son. While on leave, he decided to find Demyan Ganul and kill him in revenge for breaking this agreement and causing his son’s death.
And on that note, I will let you go. Do let me know what you think in the comments,
(As always, thanks for reading, and please give this post a ❤️ and restack below.)
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Read more from the spectacle…
Declan O'Mulrooney is intentionally misleading his readers. Anyone who studied the 2014 matter can easily detect it. His misinformation ranges from the spelling (must be “Odesa” not the Russian “Odessa”) to the skipping of the facts and determinations made by the European Court.
First of, Declan for any reason does not give the link to the Judgment of the Court itself, which establish a lot more facts surrounding the blaze in Odesa on the days before and after the blaze (read here: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-242505%22]} The Court ruled that Ukrainian authorities failed to prevent violence, stop it in time, or ensure effective rescue operations. The investigation into the events was deemed ineffective, suffering from delays and lack of independence. The ruling highlighted the broader context of Russia's involvement in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
More important is that Declan had qualified it as “Odessa Massacre” for no reason. Massacre an indiscriminate intentional slaughter of many people. The ECHR did not determine that the fire in the Odesa Trade Union Building on 2 May 2014 was set with the deliberate intention to massacre or systematically kill the victims. Instead, the Court focused on Odesian officials and officers’ failure to prevent and stop the violence, ensure timely rescue measures, and conduct an effective investigation into the events.
The judgment notes that both pro-Maidan and anti-Maidan activists used Molotov cocktails, with fires originating inside and outside the building. The Ukrainian authorities’ failure to intervene effectively contributed to the fatalities, but the Court did not establish a finding of premeditated mass murder.
Specific facts, Declan forgets to mention: that most of the law enforcement and other agencies in Odesa responsible for making sure no such trouble happened were separatists and worked for Moscow. They mostly fled to Russia already in May 2014.
Demyan was not an “enforcer”, Declan just exacerbated it. Demyan was just an activist, just one of patriots of Ukraine. See an interview with Demyan in Odesa to the local newspaper Dumskaya (they work in Russian): https://youtu.be/KnvE7FEQH24?si=hx45YSLAkXh3AfST. I know that anyone who in Ukraine, in Belarus, in Moldova, in the Baltics calls himself a Patriot, Moscow and Kremlin propaganda outlets call them “Nazis”).
Declan forgets to mention such facts as “at 4.10 p.m. the first victim, Mr. Ivanov [Russian surname], a pro-unity (pro-Ukraine) activist, sustained a firearm injury to the abdomen. He was taken to hospital by an ambulance but died during surgery”, or that The Court noted that many of those who took refuge in the Trade Union Building were anti-Maidan (pro-Russian) activists. It also recognised that some of the pro-Unity protesters attempted to help those trapped inside, while others engaged in violence.
Declan has said that out of the 48 people who died “mostly were Ukrainians who leaned towards Russia”, but he intentionally forgot to mention that:
- 42 individuals perishing in the Trade Unions House fire and six others killed earlier that day during clashes in Hretska Square.
- many of the victims were Ukrainian patriots.
- Nor has he said that many of those who were involved in causing the blaze were Russian citizens or those who came from the Russia-occupied parts of Moldova (from Transnistria).
People really need to do their own research or at least read the Court’s decision.
Dumskaya, local newspaper of Odesa, speaks Russian, they actually did very good investigation about the 2-May invents, and reported all about it (many hundreds of A4 pages) already in 2014-2015. Read them at least.
In my country and language, those guys are called Nazis not Nationalist. And they need to disappear from the face of the earth!
Every Nazi killed makes the day better.