Odessa Trade Unions House Massacre

On several videos, the police and the fascist mob can be seen as working closely together--militants shooting from behind the police, the police letting them pass, etc. In the morning hours, the fascist "pro-unity" marches congregated in several central streets of Odessa, thus drawing there antifascist protesters.

It is evident that this early phase was well planned as a diversionary tactic for the main target was the Kulikovo field with the Labor Union building which was the center of nearly all antifascist manifestations in Odessa. It is also there where antifascist patriots set up their makeshift tent city. The junta felt that this needed to be cleared and that, at the same time, the protesters must be taught a harsh lesson which would break the spirit of this "hero city," a title Odessa gained with several other select cities in the Great Patriotic War.

The diversion worked, and many of the young antifascist activists remained in downtown. In well synchronized and organized columns, the fascist paramilitaries then quickly regrouped and moved against their principal target--the antifascist tent city on the Kulikovo field accompanied by units of the Odessa police. Because of the successful diversion, most of the people on the Kulikovo field were middle-age and older people with many women among them. As soon as they arrived there, the militants not only started burning and destroying the tents, but they also started killing the people. They did in such a way that, for most people, the only exit left was into the Labor Union building. That was a trap.

Once they got the people inside, the fascists started throwing Molotov cocktails and shooting. However, as can be seen on the photos and videos, the fire was mainly at the main entrance and in few several rooms elsewhere. Only a smaller number of victims showed signs of being completely burned. Many of the victims died of suffocation or strangling or their upper bodies or faces were burned. Many of the victims were shot into the heads. Many were beaten to death.

This means that most of the victims were hunted and killed one by one inside the building. This killing spree given the size of the building apparently lasted over several hours and as going on even when the much delayed and very feeble response of the fire department was detected.

All this time, the Odessa police stood by and some of the police with ties to the Right Sector reportedly assisted the fascists by shooting into the people who were climbing on the windows. After several hours, the police then acted and detained ... guess who ... some 60-80 antifascist survivors who then, without food or water, were kept for many hours in the police department, and charged with multiple crimes, including murder.

The one main thing, which the police was interested most, was trying to find at least one "Russian" in the group. Alas, this did not succeed. All the victims and now detainees were Odessites (unlike may of the fascist militants). An angry crowd later that day forced their release .... which profoundly upset the Right Sector murderers. An Odessite grandmother was memorably recorded "beating" with lilacs (who used to symbolize Victory Day--lilacs blossom in May) Odessa policemen who were blocking on Saturday the Labor Union building with the corpses (most likely well over 100) still there.

Only when it was dark, the Right Sector crawled back and came back to the scene of their crime singing and shouting "glory" to themselves. Evidently, the corpses were removed soon after--during the night for today, as various videos show, people started to roam the devastated building still shocked, distraught, and upset. As expected and true to its character, the junta first blamed the victims. They allegedly caused the fire themselves and burned themselves by throwing Molotov cocktails on the peaceful pro-junta protesters.

A later modified line, repeated by Western media, was that what happened was a "tragedy," but one without a perpetrator. The one problem identified was some sort of further unspecified failing on the part of the local police. The head of the police was replaced .... with an even more over Right Sector hand.

Following a cue from Catherine Ashton, Yatsenyuk, the junta's PM, then issued a call (to an unspecified addressee) for an "independent investigation." The same assembly of fascist murderous thugs was planning to hit in a similar way Kharkov. The massive outrage and mobilization appears to have stopped this or at least delayed for now.^[12]