About 30 federalization supporters have been released in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odessa as more than 1,000 people blocked the building of the Odessa police department.
The press service of the Odessa police department said that the protesters had broken the entrance gate and got into the courtyard. “Police have released about 30 people,” the press service said.
- Earlier on Sunday, people came to the building of the Odessa police department from the Trade Union House that was burnt on May 2 by Right Sector radicals. Protesters were chanting slogans “Odessa residents will never forgive,” “Russia,” “Down with the Kiev Junta,” “Right Sector are executioners.” People demanded the release of the people detained on May 2 and the resignation of Odessa governor Vladimir Nemirovsky, whom they called “murderer” and accused of human deaths at the Trade Union House.
- The Odessa police detained 160 “most active participants in mass riots” and opened criminal proceedings on charges of “mass disorders” and “threats and violence against law enforces,” the press service of the Ukrainian interior ministry said on Saturday.
Unrests erupted on Friday, May 2, with a mass fight started by football fans from Kharkov, Right Sector radicals and members of the so-called “Maidan self-defence” force from Kiev, who had decided to march along the streets of Odessa, thus provoking clashes with the supporters of Ukraine’s federalization. Radicals set fire to the building of the Odessa region Trade Union House and a tent camp where federalization supporters collected signatures in favour of holding a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine and granting the official state language status to the Russian language. As a result, 46 people were killed and over 200 had requested medical attention.
[itar-tass.com]
4/5/14
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Ukraine: More than 2,000 pro-Russian militants on Sunday stormed the police headquarters in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, where 42 people had died in clashes two days ago....
ReplyDeleteAn AFP reporter on the scene said the crowd shouted "fascists, fascists" as they attacked the building, demanding the release of some of their number arrested during the clashes.
In a bid to calm the crowd, police freed one of the detained pro-Russians, who emerged to cheers of "well played" from the protesters.
The protesters, some armed with batons, had made it into an interior courtyard.
Odessa, a scenic Black Sea port home to more than one million people, was still in shock after running battles on Friday between pro-Russians and pro-Kiev protesters culminated in an inferno that left 38 dead.
The majority of those trapped inside a trade union building in central Odessa were thought to be pro-Russian supporters who had barricaded themselves in.
Both sides were lobbing petrol bombs at each other when the blaze erupted, sparking frantic efforts to escape.
According to local health officials, 30 died when they were overcome from fumes and eight in the desperate bid to escape.
A further four were killed by gunshot wounds during the initial clashes, officials said.
Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who visited Odessa earlier on Sunday, blamed the death on what he called "inefficient" police.
Both sets of protesters have voiced outrage that the fire service took so long to respond to the blaze.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Pro-Russian-militants-attack-police-HQ-in-Ukraines-Odessa/articleshow/34644857.cms
4/5/14