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Valerii Terentev's avatar

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.

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Kazimir Malevitch's avatar

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.

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