By Odessa Memorial Day organizers, Vancouver, Canada, on May 2, 2015
Dear friends!
We are gathered today in Vancouver to remember the victims of the Odessa Massacre.
From the very moment the Kiev clique came to power last year, it revealed to the full its dictatorial, neo-Nazi nature. Dissent has been persecuted and banned. Ethnic Russians have been declared “subhumans” by government figures and there were plans for their genocide, either in the form of a forced “Ukrainization” or their physical elimination.
On May 2, 2014, the Ukrainian ultras [football hooligans], coordinated by the neo-Nazi organization Right Sector, condoned and encouraged by the Kiev junta, literally pushed Ukraine into the burner of civil war. Openly, in the view of hundreds of witnesses, they committed a mass murder of Odessa residents. The fascist militants attacked the people protesting the government in Kyiv using baseball bats and other weapons, battering them without mercy. Many unarmed civilians, including women, elderly, and children, were chased into the Trade Unions House in the center of the city where they tried to hide from the attackers. However, it turned out to be a trap.
The Right Sector activists and ultras surrounded the building and then began throwing Molotov cocktails. The multi-storey structure caught fire and shortly was engulfed in flames. Those who tried to leave the building were met with merciless beatings and shootings by firearms, forcing them to turn back. People jumped out of windows to their deaths. Survivors were finished off on the ground or dragged through “corridors of shame”. The badly injured were methodically beaten to death. Some sought protection on the rooftop, but they were fired at by snipers. The police were on site, but didn’t intervene. The fire and massacre went on for several hours. The screaming, calls for help, moaning of the injured in the Trade Unions House eventually stopped.
According to the different estimates, on that day between 50 and 200 people were killed – men and women, children and seniors. The point of no return for Ukraine’s disintegration had been passed.
Shortly after this tragedy, the population of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions who didn’t want to be a part of the Ukrainian “New Order” based on militant nationalism, neo-Nazism and russophobia, held referenda and declared themselves independent republics. The Kiev junta opened a brutal, ruthless war against them, a war of complete destruction. The results of this so-called “anti-terrorist operation” are, according to official records only, more than 6,000 killed, tens of thousands of wounded and more than one million refugees and displaced persons.
Those who are in power in Kiev don’t even hide that they are preparing for revanche. Their plans are being pushed by the United States and NATO. The latter provide the regime with so-called “help” in the form of funding and modern military equipment. They have dispatched troops, instructors and mercenaries to Ukraine. The Harper government alone has already given Kiev over half a billion dollars to continue the war, and it has announced that it will send to Ukraine 200 servicemen of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Along with the preparations for the full-scale war, the Kiev regime has unleashed a campaign of terror against dissenters. Citizens of Ukraine get arrested and imprisoned on the slightest suspicion of disloyalty to the “new” authorities. Many simply disappear without a trace. The open opponents of the regime are murdered demonstratively. Dozens of prominent public activists and journalists have become targets of the political terror in Ukraine. From April 13 to 16 alone, three people were killed –Sergei Sukhobok, a journalist; Oleg Kalashnikov, a Deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament; and Oles Buzina, a writer and journalist.
Yes, we gather today to honor the memory of those who died in the Odessa Massacre on May 2, 2014. Yet, we simply cannot forget the victims of the war the Kiev regime unleashed against the peoples of Ukraine, victims of political terror and violence. And on this day of mourning, we demand from the Kiev regime that
- a thorough, objective and unbiased investigation of the Odessa Massacre be carried out and all guilty persons be prosecuted;
- immediately stop resorting to military force against the peoples of Ukraine in this internal conflict ;
- all extreme, right-wing, ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations in Ukraine be declared illegal and disbanded, their militia units be disarmed and those who committed crimes against peaceful citizens of Ukraine be prosecuted.
We appeal to European leaders, first of all in Germany and France, and to the whole European community to put pressure on the Poroshenko government and urge it to begin an all-Ukrainian national dialogue.
We demand that the United States and NATO stop interfering in the internal conflict in Ukraine.
We announce that we fundamentally disapprove the actions of the Harper government in connection with the Ukrainian crisis. Hence, we demand that Harper government:
- cease any financial, material and military support to the Kiev regime,
- cancel its decision to deploy Canadian Armed Forces to Ukraine,
- bring back all Canadian military personnel who are already on the ground in Ukraine.
And we say,
- Remember the martyrs of the Odessa Massacre!
- Remember the victims of the war waged by the Kiev regime against the peoples of Ukraine!
- Remember the assassinated political and public activists, journalists of Ukraine who raised their voices against the current Kiev regime and its policy leading Ukraine to the national catastrophe!
We will never forget. We will never forgive.
View:
Thousands march in Kyiv May 2, 2015 to commemorate Odessa Massacre
Photo gallery of May 2, 2015 commemoration in Odessa, Ukraine (published on TASS)
Brief video of ‘Remember Odessa’ march in Toronto on May 2, 2015
