Odessa May 2 trial turns into farce | Ukraine solidarity campaign солідарність України кампанія

Notes: The author tries to explain their pro-Ukraine leanings, but after all that, this article can't really be viewed as pro-Ukraine.

 March 14, 2015 · by ukrainesolidaritycampaign · in Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Odessa, Ukrainian Far-Right

By Halya Coynash Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group

 Whatever the reasons for delays and flaws in investigating and prosecuting crimes related to the disturbances, fire and deaths on May 2, 2014 in Odessa, procrastination serves only the interests of Russian propaganda's 'massacre' claims.

 Forty-eight people died in Odessa on May 2, 2014 during disturbances in the city and as the result of a fire in the Trade Union building on Kulikovo Pole. Full clarity about what happened and accountability are vital, both for the sake of the victims and their families and because Russian propaganda is relentlessly distorting the facts to present a terrible tragedy as a 'massacre'. Yet almost 10 months after the events, the investigation into the fire is still far from complete, and the trial that had begun over the earlier disturbances has been delayed due to significant irregularities and most of the defendants facing dangerously vague charges.

 When police snipers were deployed on Maidan in Kyiv in February 2014, resulting in the deaths of around 100 mostly unarmed protesters, there was a large media presence showing the harrowing images. In contrast, the events in Odessa on May 2 were largely learned about after the fire in which most of the 48 victims died. Russian propaganda channels immediately began spinning and have ever since pushed claims of a 'massacre' with anti-Maidan activists allegedly 'burned alive' or murdered as they tried to escape. The same channels talk less about the earlier disturbances but claim that these were the work of 'Right Sector' and other far right 'radicals'. Considerable resources have been poured into efforts to push the 'massacre' line, including organization of an 'exhibition' taken around European cities, along with carefully selected 'witnesses'.

 The propaganda version of events has been refuted by the United Nations Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and by the May 2 Group, a journalist and civic initiative that includes representatives of both sides, which has been investigating the events and the copious video footage available (detailed examples here).

However, the propaganda narrative continues to be fuelled by the ongoing failure to complete the investigation into the events of May 2 and to bring to justice those whose actions or negligence caused deaths that day.

For chronological reasons, and since most of the new developments concern a trial over the disturbances earlier in the day, we begin with those. Worth noting, however, that far more people died as a result of the later fire. Given that most of the deaths could have been averted had the fire service not taken 45 minutes to appear, the failure to address this is deeply disturbing.

Complete story at - Odessa May 2 trial turns into farce | Ukraine solidarity campaign солідарність України кампанія

Massacre of the Innocents: Slaughter in the Gaza Ghetto | The Smirking Chimp

by Chris Floyd

The horror of Israel’s latest slaughter in Gaza speaks for itself — despite the mountainous flow of media sludge designed to obscure the reality of the aggression. Even the New York Times has been forced to print a few stories about the high number of civilian deaths being caused by the Israeli assault on the “Warsaw Ghetto” they have made of Gaza, noting the hospitals and mosques and private homes where dozens of innocent people have been blown to pieces by Israel’s weaponry (much of it American-made).

Israel has imprisoned the people of Gaza in a stateless limbo while carefully controlling almost every aspect of their lives, including what medicines they can have, what manufacturing and building materials they are allowed and even, at times, how much food they are allowed to eat to keep the population weakened but just above malnutrition levels.

This brutal regimen in daily life is of course punctuated with regular night raids, bombings, kidnappings, “disappearings” and almost weekly civilians deaths at the hands of Israeli overseers. This has gone on year after year. Yet Western media — and Western politicians — are presenting a picture of a nuclear-armed, American-backed ultra-militarist Israel “under siege” from a handful of ineffective rockets fired by factions in Gaza which are answering violence with violence.

But as we all know, the West demands that Palestinians show superhuman, Gandhi-like forbearance in the face of murderous oppression and relentless, widespread violence killing their children and families. They are never to respond in kind — unlike the Americans, who have killed hundreds of thousands of people in response to a single attack on their soil. This after killing, by Washington’s own admission, more than half a million children in Iraq with peacetime sanctions — against a nation which had never attacked the United States and posed no threat to it. The merest hint of a possible threat remotely occurring sometime in a barely imaginable future is justification enough for the Americans to lay waste to whole nations and kill thousands of people. (Of course, in many states in America this principle is now enshrined in law on an individual basis: you can shoot dead anyone you feel might be a “threat” to you — whether they are or not. The ‘stand your ground’ laws are a perfect example of a nation rotting from the head, as the murderous militarism and adherence to violence embodied by the bipartisan elite seep down through every strata of society.) This is the true — the only — meaning of “American exceptionalism”: the right to ruin, rape and murder in perfect moral purity.

Complete story at - Massacre of the Innocents: Slaughter in the Gaza Ghetto | The Smirking Chimp

Ukrainian Soldiers – Abandoned in Zelenopillia, Corpses All Around Them | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

The video, should you choose to watch it,  is not in English, nor does it have English subtitles. The English transcript of the video is below... 



Announcer: Piles of dead bodies as heritage of slaughter near Zelenopillia, – this is the story of those who were lucky enough to survive and come back home.

Extraordinary News met the airborne troops who categorically reject the official data of their commanders saying that 19 were killed in action. Troops were slaughtered by Grad MLRS; exploding shells were sending torn-off limbs flying in all directions, it was hard to find survivors among the dead bodies. And now we’ll tell you about war with no censorship.

CAPTION: Bogdan Lozitsky, Recruit

Soldier: In general, I am a person who takes initiative. I joined the army voluntarily, and my position is that if your country calls you, you have to go and defend it.

Announcer: This video was shown in mid-March, when they were mobilizing in the Kiev Region, Bogdan wanted to be on the front lines as soon as possible, and when they sent him to the East to defend the Ukrainian border, and there he had a chance to see what real inferno looks like.

CAPTION: Bogdan Lozitsky, serviceman of the 72nd Special Mechanized Brigade

Bogdan: Those torn-off arms and hands, torn-off legs … People were dying in front of my eyes, in my arms they were dying. Burned people… There were people who could not get up from their beds. There were tents, and they had just gone to sleep. Everything burned, there were no people left, just arms and legs scattered around.

Announcer: Bogdan remembers with horror the events of the 13th of July. Their unit was deployed in the camp of the 24th Brigade near Zelenopilla, and commanders there, in his opinion, were giving absurd orders that left both men and equipment and ammo in the middle of an open field whereas there was, in fact, a forested area nearby.

CAPTION: Denis, serviceman of the 72nd Special Mechanized Brigade

I woke up from the sound of explosions, from something hitting the ground. The earth just shakes when they shell you like that.

Announcer: About 40 salvos from Grad MLRS in a few short minutes turned the soldiers’ camp into one bloody mess.

Bogdan: Those who were missing their legs, we were trying to bandage them to stop the bleeding. Where we could, we provided them with drippers. Not a single commissioned officer! We had there, not a single one! There were those shouts, that noise – wounded there, dead here.. Men were burning, men were missing their legs. One was missing a leg while the other leg still had a foot attached, hanging every which way like that, and you do not know what to do with that person. We carried him away, we put him down, but literally several minutes later – that’s it, he was dead. Another one wasshell shocked, he could not say a word, do anything….

Announcer: All pleas for help were in vain – the commanders, Bogdan says, were not even planning to send in any reinforcements.

Bogdan: We call our commander, we say, ‘Save us, get us out of here’, and he says: ‘What, you are still alive? No, no one will get you out of there – you are not supposed to be there at all. Officially, you are not there. Get out of there any way you like’. And then he says: ‘What about the equipment, is it still there?’ ‘WHAT equipment can there be??? All of the equipment was burned, the Ural truck, gone completely, machine guns, rifles, documents, clothes, everything burned down. And that KamAz truck – God bless that driver, Taras, who was wounded, wounded, but he pressed together those brushes that were stuck in that truck, and succeeded in moving it all aside, for it not to explode.

Announcer: Bogdan is showing a video of the annihilated military camp.

Bogdan: Do you see that spot? Guys were lying down there, who came to defend their Motherland. Nothing’s left … No legs, no heads, just one arm left, and that one is burned, because those in that fire no one was supposed to survive.

Announcer: Not yet coming back to their senses after the first strike, the soldiers faced another one. As soon as they re-deployed to another location, they faced more fire, this time the terrorists added mortar shell to the Grad rockets, and in the face of death, soldiers were thinking of their families.

Bogdan: My wife was calling me, and I had hardly survived, but what was I supposed to tell her? My mom was calling, asking me: ‘Where are you?’ I say: ‘A am in Zhitomir, mom, I’m I Zhitomir, do not worry. Everything is all right, I sleep, I eat, I am clean, I have clothes’. Whereas I drink rainwater and we lie down on our bulletproof vests.

Announcer: The soldiers call their survival ‘a miracle’, they were granted a 10-day leave to take a breath, but even here, they find no rest.

Denis: When you are recovering, it’s hard, hard, very hard to take all that, because you close your eyes, and you see the same picture.

Bogdan: And now our comrades are harassed by the military prosecutors: Where is the Ural truck? Where are the armaments? Where is the ammo?’ ‘What do you mean, where? It all burned down, complete with those men. They don’t have their body parts – some missing their legs, some missing their arms, some missing their eyes, their heads, some only have half a body left. Why is it that they are not asking where those people are? Why are they interested only in the ammo?

Announcer: Still his thoughts are there with those guys, still there in the field under fire.

Bogdan on the phone: ‘Do they shoot at you a lot?’ Voice on the phone: “Just has six salvos.”

Bogdan: ‘What kind of salvos?’ Voice on the phone: ‘What kind? Grad salvos, of course.”

Bogdan: ‘Just hold on, my brother, humanitarian assistance will arrive, everything you need will be there, in any case, somehow, we’ll get you out of there. We’ll raise the people, we’ll get you out of there in any case, you should not be there at all now. Bye, my brother, good luck to you’. Voice on the phone: ‘We hope so, good luck to you too’.

Announcer: They are trying to cover up the scale of the tragedy near Zelenopilia, how else are they going to explain the official announcement of 19 men KIA?

Bogdan: What kind of data can you have in general? From a person who was not there at all? What kind of data can that person provide? Four Ural trucks full of people who were killed. Right now you cannot call them, God forgive me, half-men, now they are just dead bodies. Just legs, just rams – four full trucks.

Announcer: The soldiers are certain that the fatal error was not negligence, it was treason, but nevertheless, they will return to the front lines, for who else will do it?

Bogdan: I am really a patriot, I really volunteered, and it would be ok, if it had been a battle. They do not even give us an opportunity to shoot back. We are just like blind kittens, squashed and squashed by those Grads. There is no war there, it’s just laundering of the war money, and there is nothing else to it. Done by high military brass. I do not know now what’s going to happen to me after this interview, but I do not care, I want the people to know. Let the people know what is happening there. All that political dividing the spoils by God knows whom, while those dying are ordinary guys, we, just ordinary guys, we are the ones who are doing the dying.

Complete story at - Ukrainian Soldiers – Abandoned in Zelenopillia, Corpses All Around Them | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

Air attack on pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk kills 8, stuns city - CNN.com

Dang, never thought I'd be posting CNN here. Yet here it is.

And apparently, blogger/blogspot doesn't like CNN videos.  So, no video here.

(CNN) -- Bloodstained pavement, a woman's compact, a pair of shattered spectacles, a single shoe covered in dust were among the debris left by a devastating series of explosions that hit the headquarters of the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on Monday.

The carnage was sudden, unexpected. This was the middle of a city, a building adjacent to a leafy square, where civilians walked and worked. Eight people were killed, five women and three men, according to the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic; the authorities in Kiev reported the same tally.

But there the agreement ends.

The pro-Russian leadership in the city immediately accused the Ukrainian air force of carrying out the attack. A fighter jet had been flying overhead at the time, and social media video appeared to show it firing cannon or rockets. The authorities in Kiev denied its planes had been involved. Initially, the anti-terrorist operation said the explosion originated from inside the building, then that an anti-aircraft missile operated by the separatists had misfired, reacting to heat from an air-conditioning system on the outside of the building.

But a CNN investigation in Luhansk has found clear evidence that whatever detonations hit the building and the adjoining park came from the air. The tops of trees were splintered, and a series of small craters -- about a dozen -- had been blasted in a straight line, starting in the park and reaching the walls of the building, blowing out many of its windows and spraying the area with jagged shrapnel. That's what appears to have killed most of the victims and injured 20 more.

The pattern of the craters clearly indicated some sort of strafing, according to a munitions expert at the scene with CNN. Their size suggested 30-millimeter ordnance, he said, which is standard equipment on the Su-25, a ground attack fighter, and the Su-27 -- both combat aircraft operated by Ukraine.

Complete story at - Air attack on pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk kills 8, stuns city - CNN.com

Is the West DIRECTLY Responsible for the Massacres In Ukraine? Washington's Blog

Biggest German Newspapers Say Blackwater Behind Massacres

FireDogLake reported on Monday:

Breaking during the weekend was a story by Der Spiegel and Bild that American mercenaries were on the ground in Kiev. According to the report 400 mercenaries from Academi (formerly Blackwater) were on the ground “involved in a punitive operation mounted by Ukraine’s new government.”

Der Spiegel claims “the information originates from U.S. intelligence services and was presented during a meeting chaired by the Chancellor’s Office chief Peter Altmaier (CDU). At the meeting were present the president of the intelligence agencies and the Federal Criminal Office, as well as the intelligence coordinator of the Chancellor’s Office and senior Ministry officials.”

Indeed, the German newspaper apparently claim that the American mercenaries are directing and coordinating the attacks by the fascist Right Sector militia.

Blackwater is more or less an extension of the CIA.

There are also dozens of CIA and FBI “advisors” in Ukraine, and the CIA director visited Kiev before the massacres started.

In any event, even if the U.S. is not directly responsible for the massacres, we are certainly indirectly responsible. After all, the U.S. is backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine (and see this).

Complete story at - Is the West DIRECTLY Responsible for the Massacres In Ukraine? Washington's Blog

False Flag in Odessa » CounterPunch:

by MIKE WHITNEY

“According to the evidence that I’ve seen …Odessa was a giant false flag operation. It… was one of those staged massacres that the pro-Western forces from Bosnia to Kosovo, now Ukraine, excel at staging, intended to draw Russia to overreact and commit military forces … I believe that the fact that they are willing to stage such a horrendous atrocity shows the depth of their desperation at this point.” – Nebojsa Malic, political analyst, Russia Today

“Not under foreign skies
Nor under foreign wings protected -
I shared all this with my own people
There, where misfortune had abandoned us.”
“Requiem” – Anna Akhmatova

Photos of the victims of the Odessa fire which have been circulating on the Internet have cast doubt on the official version of events. It’s now clear that many of the anti-junta activists who occupied the Trade Unions House were neither burned to death nor died of smoke inhalation, but were savagely shot at point-blank range by agents and thugs who had infiltrated the building to kill as many of the occupants as possible, burn the corpses, and then slip away without notice. Some of the victims–like a young woman who was eight months pregnant –were strangled with an electrical chord and left slumped backwards over her desk in a room that shows no sign of fire or smoke damage. In another case, a woman was stripped naked from the waste down, raped, killed, and set ablaze.

In still other cases, victims with bullet-holes through their skulls, had flammable fluid dumped on their heads and were incinerated, leaving a charred head atop a corpse whose clothes were untouched by fire. The sloppily-executed killing-spree proves that the fire was not the result of a spontaneous clash between pro and anti-Kiev demonstrators, but a carefully planned black-op that likely involved foreign Intel agencies working hand-in-hand with the fascist junta government in Kiev. Did we mention that the CIA has taken up residence in the Ukrainian capital? Here’s the scoop from the AFP:

“Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government … helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure…” (CIA, FBI agents ‘advising Ukraine government: report, AFP)

Complete story at - False Flag in Odessa » CounterPunch

Major Cover-Up in the Odessa, Ukraine Trade Union House Fire

Remember the “Fog of War” that’s often spoken of? There’s a lot of such for going around even as we speak.

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The alternate number of dead that I've seen the most (other than 38-46) is 116.

NOTE: Photos at the following link are VERY GRUESOME. Not for the faint of heart.

The information that follows comes from the following website... http://ersieesist.livejournal.com/813.html

The following text is the English language information that appears on the above website, without the photos. If you have the stomach to see the photos, you must go to the link above. Also note the translation is not as precise one might like it to be.

UPDATE:  New Sources added below.

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TRANSCRIPT

How the thugs killed Odessa inhabitants in the Trade Unions House - the details of bloody scenario
С переводом на английский (includes English version).

Note: the English version has been corrected, thanks to skydigger, panchul, Иван Крамской ,

Note: Great tragedy happened to the port city of Odessa at Friday, May 2nd, 2014. Supporters of federalism were chased to the Trade Unions House by Right Sector mob. The building caught fire soon afterwards, which resulted (by official reports) in 42 deaths.

Originally posted by frallik at Как убивали одесситов в Доме Профсоюзов - детали сценария... +18

It’s clear that the number of casualties in the Trade Unions House is far greater. Provocateurs captivated people into the building where it was possible to kill them with impunity, with great relish, and without witnesses. Fire inside the building was directed in order to hide mass murdering of Ukrainian citizens.

Firstly, the tents on the square were set on fire which resulted in appearance of large open fire areas close to the building. People were captivated to hide behind massive doors of the Trade Unions House. Federalism supporters had no Molotov’s cocktails prepared in advance. From where has fire inside the building appeared?

People behind the doors of the ground floor have been attacked by the Right Sector thugs who got in there long before the execution has begun. Those people were burned to the bones, first at main entrance…

…Then at rest of them.

Firefighters only appeared when massive entrance doors were burned through.

Only in a single room in a five-storey building with ceilings over 3 meters high had fire visible from outside.

Who could get onto the roof of the administrative building of nationwide significance? Perhaps those who in advance got the keys to locked steel gratings protecting the roof doors.

These thugs must be found. They could tell a lot about when the murdering plan implementation has started, and how in advance they brought supplies for Molotov’s cocktails to the Trade Unions House.

On the picture below stunt clowns play a role of federalism supporters. Typical Hollywood (USA/Israel)-style false flag action.

Charred bodies on the ground floor, near the entrance doors.

Why charred bodies appeared on higher floors where there was no open fire?

The same bodies from other viewpoint:
- Wooden battery panel, wooden railings on the stairs and chipboard sheet don't look burnt;
- Blue oval points to the barricade made of tables, chairs and cabinets. It hadn’t even touched by fire, unlike the charred bodies lying nearby;
- From where has the barricade appeared? It was built by the Right Sector thugs in order to lock people trying to save themselves on the above floors.

Female corpse was dragged across the floor space from the real place of her death. Who and why did it?

This man was shot in the head. Judging from clearly visible blood puddle, the murderer fired at point-blank so the bullet passed through the skull.

Have you noticed already that some dead people had burnt heads and shoulders only? That clothing under chest is not affected by fire? Somebody poured flammable stuff onto upper body of those people and set them ablaze. Could sunglasses stay on the face when a man tries to shake the napalm off his head? Notice that hands and wrists of those people burned to the bones, too.

On this and previous pictures, a strange “whitewash” can be seen on the floor. That is the powder from extinguishers used by the punishers after people died…in order not to burn themselves or suffer from carbon monoxide.

Young man and young woman. They have neither burned nor suffocated – there are no signs of an open fire on the hardwood floor (it seems to be made 50 years ago so it should have catch fire as a straw) and soot from the smoke on the walls. They were killed by other means. Most likely, somebody broke their necks – “professionals” entertained themselves here.

Barricades were on the other floors as well. Blood on the floor. Burnt head.

The red arrow: it's possible that the killers were "borrowing" their clothing with victims. Well known stuff, simple and effective.

Note: according to one of the main versions of what happened on May 2 in Odessa, the Right Sector thugs performed a false flag operation. They put St. George's Ribbons (symbols of anti-Maidan federalism supporters) and organized violent provocation against Maidan supporters (i.e. against their own allies), in order to later blame federalism supporters and make them look responsible for death of many people.

Dead woman near the elevator with clothes absent below her waist. Most likely, she was raped, then doused with a flammable mixture and set aflame.

People shot in the head.

The same picture again: burnt heads, hands and shoulders, lower body untouched by fire.

Man with multiple headshots.

The scariest picture. Most likely it is a pregnant woman, who was one of the employees working on holidays, cleaning offices and watering flowers. She was strangled by an electric wire. She tried to resist – one can see discarded flower on the floor.

The following video recorded how this woman cried and called for help while being murdered ("HELP ME! HELP ME!" cries start at 0:20).

…probably, that’s her killer.

The sign of above demotivator that points on victim, murderer and the crime scene reads: “We offed Mommy! Glory to Ukraine!”. This demotivator has been joyfully posted by one of the Ukrainian "patriots".

Note: “Mommy Odessa” is an affectionate nickname for Odessa, similar to “Big Apple” for New York, or “Emerald City” for Seattle.

Future mother (strangled woman) and Mommy Odessa are killed. As the whole Ukraine.

On the following video, an eyewitness says about more than one hundred victims killed inside the Trade Unions House (in Russian).

P.S. The number of killed people can be as high as 300. Most of people, especially children and women, were hashed with axes and clubbed to death with wooden sticks in the basement of the Trade Unions House: http://vlad-dolohov.livejournal.com/ 876486.html

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More sources. The first is a better translation of the one mentioned above, with the same gruesome photos.

How the thugs killed Odessa inhabitants in the Trade Unions House - the details of bloody scenario

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/06/how-thugs-killed-odessa-inhabitants-in-trade-unions-house-details-bloody-scenario.html

Kiev and Right Sector Kristallnacht Odessa…Extreme Graphics

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/06/kiev-right-sector-kristallnacht-odessa-extreme-graphics.html

How the US-backed Kiev Fascists Killed Odessa Inhabitants: PHOTO Details of Bloody Massacre: MUST SEE and READ!

http://www.4thmedia.org/2014/05/how-the-us-backed-kiev-fascists-killed-odessa-inhabitants-photo-details-of-bloody-massacre/

Odessa, Ukraine -- Massacre details (UPDATED w/annotations)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=749_1399286176

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