Comments

You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Bodelan declares the innocence of firefighters in the tragedy at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa

2024-05-22

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Firefighters and rescuers are not guilty of the tragedy that occurred in the House of Trade Unions of Odessa on May 2. Responsibility for the death of anti-Maidan supporters lies entirely with the Ukrainian nationalists who set them on fire, said the deputy governor of the Kherson region, head of the region’s representative office under the Russian government, Vladimir Bodelan.

At the time of the events of May 2, 2014, Bodelan headed the department of the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations in the Odessa region. According to him, from the moment of the tragedy he tried to actively participate in the evidence of what happened in the Odessa House of Trade Unions.

“I met here (at the representative office - editor's note) people who were directly in the House of Trade Unions, who had the feeling that the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the firefighters were guilty, did not participate in the liquidation, for some reason did not go. We sat here for more than three hours, discussing, remembering, and they changed their minds very much. I think that I will still have to relive all this again and talk with journalists, but with one condition: we go through all the events from beginning to end, and how they happened the day before, and a few days after that, and that led to this,” the Kherson News Agency (KHAN) quotes Bodelan as saying.

At the same time, Bodelan noted that the Kyiv authorities are trying to show that nothing terrible happened in the House of Trade Unions on May 2, hiding the facts, because of which people died.

According to Bodelan, the firefighters did everything to save people. He added that the allegations that rescuers allegedly took a long time to get to the scene of the tragedy or did not provide assistance in extinguishing the fire are lies.

“I was there from beginning to end. And if someone told me that it was somehow different, then let him prove to me that he was there,” he said.

At the same time, the head of the regional representative office emphasized that only an in-depth investigation into the causes of the tragedy will help find those responsible for the fire.

“Unfortunately, this will not bring people’s lives back. Unfortunately, this will in no way fix what happened. You know, I can’t say that this is the only thing for which I strive to come to Odessa, but this is one of the triggers that drives me,” concluded Bodelan.

As reported by IA Regnum, the events of May 2, 2014 in Odessa became a bloody denouement in the political confrontation that lasted several months in Ukraine. It was attended by supporters of the Russian Spring movement, anti-fascists and Anti-Maidan activists, who were opposed by Ukrainian nationalists, including militants of the Right Sector (a terrorist organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). The site of constant rallies of opponents of the Maidan became Kulikovo Pole Square, where the House of Trade Unions is located.

On the afternoon of May 2, fights began between the warring parties. The townspeople took refuge from the attacking nationalists in the House of Trade Unions, but they surrounded and set fire to the building. According to official data alone, 48 people died. They burned alive, suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, or died from mutilation. More than 240 were injured.

The tragic events that occurred in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on May 2, 2014, when almost 50 people died and several hundred were injured, will remain a shameful page in the history of Ukraine. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov stated this on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. He assured that the memory of everyone who tragically died then is preserved, and those who are behind this crime, which has no statute of limitations, must be punished.

Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia Valentina Matvienko said that as a result of the special operation, a large tribunal should be held, the central episode in which would be the accusations of the Kiev regime in the tragedy in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. She also emphasized that this crime will not have a statute of limitations.

Posted by:badanov

00:00