General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Putin Contingent on DU: WTF? [View all]Tommy_Carcetti
(43,241 posts)What happened in Odessa on May 2nd was horrible and tragic. However, it was nothing like what the pro-Russian crowd has attempted to spin it to have been.
If you were to believe them, neo-fascist, neo-Nazi pro-Ukrainians marched over to the Trade Union unprovoked and burned "anti-fascists" alive because they wanted to re-enact some decades old pogrom of days gone by.
The reality of the situation is much more complex.
The pro-Russian activists had been using the Trade Union building as a de facto headquarters. Several days before the May 2nd riots, the pro-Russian crowd had demonstrated peacefully in Odessa. They were not attacked. On the morning of May 2nd, the pro-Ukrainian activists also planned a peaceful march in the center of Odessa. However, they were attacked. First, they were attacked with sticks and bottles. After both sides had hunkered down, gunmen wearing St. George ribbons (a WWII era symbol appropriated by the pro-Russian separatists) started shooting at the pro-Ukrainian protesters from the rooftops, wounding and killing several of them. (I happened to be watching a live news feed of events as this unfolded)
This enraged the pro-Ukrainian side, who then went over to the Trade Union building where the pro-Russian side had taken up camp. There were reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown both at and from the building. Ultimately, the building did catch fire and tragically several dozen individuals inside were killed.
It was a horrible incident, but it had all the markings of mob violence gone awry, with both sides to blame in escalating events to their bloody incident. It was not anything as simple as "neo-Nazis attacking peaceful anti-facists unprovoked" as the Russian state media and all their parrots would have you think.