There was heroism and cruelty on both sides': the truth behind one of  Ukraine's deadliest days | Ukraine | The Guardian
Burning of Odessa’s House of Trade Unions Building on May 2, 2014. [Source: theguardian.com]

Massacre part of planned act of intimidation by U.S.-installed government and precipitated civil war in Ukraine

On May 2, 2014, at least 48 people were killed when right-wing Ukrainian forces burned down the Trade Unions Building in Odessa. The victims had taken refuge in the building after opposing the February 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine that was backed by the U.S. State Department.

Eight years after the massacre, the International Action Center, a New York-based anti-war group founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, hosted a public commemoration that included testimony from a survivor named Alexey who currently lives in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Alexey spoke movingly about his friend and comrade, Andrey Brezevsky, who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs with a metal bar after he jumped out of the Trade Unions Building to escape the fire.

Brezevsky’s mother, after her son’s death, lost her teaching position at a local university after being denounced by right-wing groups.

Alexey emphasized that none of the perpetrators of the Odessa massacre was ever punished. In the aftermath of the atrocity, neo-Nazi groups mocked and persecuted the relatives of the victims, like Alexey’s mother.

The once bright city became “gloomy and sad,” Alexey said. The massacre had not happened by accident, but was a “planned act of intimidation” by Ukraine’s post-coup government. It was “designed to intimidate the opposition [and] was an act of political terrorism perpetrated by the Ukrainian state targeting unarmed civilians [the victims in the fire were all unarmed].”

Alexey believes that the power of the Nazis will soon come to an end in Ukraine. He said that now “they are dying every day. The Russians are destroying these murderers, and rapists and justice will prevail. The people guilty of the Odessa trade union massacre will finally be brought to justice.”

Results of forensic examination of Odessa massacre victims to be made  public - World - TASS
Memorial to victims of the Odessa Trade Unions Building massacre. [Source: tass.com]

“A Human Rights Disaster”

Leonid Ilderkin, a Ukrainian communist in exile and member of the coordination council of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, followed Alexey, stating that Ukraine has become a “human rights disaster” following the 2014 Maidan coup.

Workers World Party (@workersworld): "Ilderkin: At the same time people  were rising up against the racist police who murdered George Floyd, the  U.S. was funding and arming pure racists in Ukraine who
Leonid Ilderkin [Source: nitter.net]

Since that time, the Ukrainian government under Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky have tried to demolish all types of political opposition and to hunt down everyone who does not like them.

Ukraine election: Poroshenko debates empty podium as Zelensky stays away -  BBC News
Petro Poroshenko, left, Volodymyr Zelensky, right. [Source: bbc.com]

The CIA, it should be noted, has assisted in these latter operations and helped to produce blacklists that are used to pinpoint dissidents for arrest.

Ilderkin said that he was a witness to the protests in Maidan Square which began in November 2013, and saw the kinds of groups that were supporting them.

The unrest led not only to the coup ousting pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych but the resurrection of Nazi ideals in the country, resulting in this situation where anyone who is progressive and on the left of the political spectrum is being hunted down.

According to Ilderkin, the Odessa massacre followed a pattern of state repression that was also exemplified by the crushing of demonstrations after the 2014 coup in Mariupol, Odessa and Zaporizhzhia, where the people almost took back control from the central government.

On May 9, 2014, seven days after the burning of the Odessa Trade Unions Building, an unknown number of unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed by state security forces and neo-Nazi militias in a massacre that was never reported on in the West.

Kiev's army shoots at civilians, uses tanks, APCs in attack on Mariupol police HQ (VIDEO) — RT World News
Kyiv army bringing in tanks and shooting at civilians in Mariupol on May 9, 2014. [Source: rt.com]

The resistance to the new regime, Ilderkin said, was more successful in Donetsk and Luhansk, where armed struggle developed.

Which Side Are You On?

Besides fueling state repression and civil conflict, the disastrous 2014 coup, according to Ilderkin, brought in leaders—Poroshenko and Zelensky—who have demolished workers’ rights and accelerated Ukraine’s deindustrialization.

Far from being a beacon of democracy as is presented in the U.S. and Western media, Ukraine is a police state where people considered disloyal to the regime are arrested and then vanish—no one knows where they are taken. The Azov Battalion is only one of many group of Nazi regiments which constitute the core of the Ukrainian army.

Don't confuse patriotism and Nazism': Ukraine's Azov forces face scrutiny | Financial Times
Azov Battalion troops. [Source: ft.com]

Ilderkin compared the Ukrainian army today to the morally bankrupt armies that fought with U.S. forces under the puppet Lon Nol regime in Cambodia and Thieu-Ky governments in South Vietnam during the Indochina War.

Lon Nol - Wikipedia
Zelensky—the modern-day Lon Nol? [Source: wikipedia.org]

Ilderkin asked audience members: Who are you going to support: the South Vietnamese or Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam?

Zelensky, he said, is like Lon Nol—who courted Western intervention that destroyed his country. Another similarity is to General Francisco Franco and the Fascist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

Ilderkin ended his talk by asking the audience: Which side are you on?

Indeed, which side are you on?


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9 COMMENTS

  1. […] See also: “Russia-Ukraine War Began in 2014, Not 2022” and “When Did the Ukraine War Begin?”  Updates: “What is Propelling the U.S. Into Increasing International Military Aggression?” and “The Ukrainian Conflict Is a U.S./NATO Proxy War, But One Which Russia Is Poised to Win Decisively” and “Voices from Donbass Speak to U.S. Anti-war Movement” and “Dutch Journalist: ‘We are Here, in Donbass, to Awaken Westerners Deluded by Propaganda’” and “The US Bubble of Pretend” and “The Donbass Diaries Part II: The Azov Battalions – Ordinary Fascism” and “‘The Once Bright City Became Gloomy and Sad:’ Survivor of 2014 Odessa Massacre Re… […]

  2. “US installed government”: no need to reed further, get the transparent right first before you touch “Covert actions”

  3. I’ve likened Zelensky to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. But that’s more a reference to how his regime was put in place.

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