MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov has pledged to shed light on all the uncomfortable truths about the Odessa massacre last Friday, which killed scores of peaceful pro-federalization protesters in the southern Ukrainian port city.
“What happened in Odessa on May 2 is clear fascism. We will not allow the facts to be swept under the rug like the ruling coalition is presently trying to do by closing the investigation from the general public,” Lavrov said at a flower laying ceremony for Victory Day in Moscow.
The regime in Ukraine has been accused by the Odessa Council officials of hushing up the real death toll of the arson fire at the local trade union hall that was caused by a raving pro-coup mob laced with the Right Sector militia hurling Molotov cocktails into the building.
A paramedic that was among the first responders later said that the attackers had stopped ambulance teams from reaching the survivors who managed to flee the deadly blaze.
“We will push for the truth, we will push so that all of the evidence that was given by witnesses and tell the story of the magnitude of the tragedy that is being consciously hushed by the authorities, so that not one piece of truth remains uninvestigated and that it is all made public,” Lavrov said.
The clashes in Odessa broke out last Friday between pro-federalization activists on one side and fans of the Odessa and Kharkiv football teams on the other, joined by Euromaidan activists.
Pro-Kiev radicals blockaded the anti-government protesters in the House of Trade Unions and set it on fire. At least 46 people died, three went missing and 214 were injured in the Odessa clashes, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. On Monday, a member of the Odessa regional council told RIA Novosti that Ukraine’s interim authorities were hiding from the public the true death toll in Friday’s tragedy in in Odessa, which actually claimed 116 lives.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the events a result of the «criminal irresponsibility of the Kiev leadership indulging insolent nationalist radicals, including Right Sector, who are staging a campaign of physical terror against supporters of federalization and real constitutional changes in Ukrainian society."
