May 2 was the anniversary of a horrific massacre in Odessa, in 2014, which saw Ukrainian Right Sector extremists slaughter more than 48 anti-Maidan protesters, most of whom were chased into and then trapped inside the Trade Union House by these armed ultranationalists who blockaded the exits to ensure maximum casualties.
To read this article in the following languages, click theTranslate Websitebutton below the author’s name.
Русский, Deutsch, Italiano, Español, 中文,Portugues,Français, عربي, Hebrew, Farsi, 日本語,한국어, Türkçe, Српски. And 40 more languages.
While the reported death toll is 48, many accounts put the number of anti-coup protesters at over 100.
One Odessa resident (Yuri Vladimirovich Didenko) who I recently spoke with, who was there at the time and survived the Odessa Trade Union House massacre told me that, according to his SBU (Ukrainian intelligence) sources at the time, there were 217 corpses—the majority of which were disappeared by cremation.
Another Odessa resident I spoke to recently (who wishes to remain anonymous) described the anti-coup protesters as being coralled toward their demise in the Trade Union House.
Inside the Trade Union House, Yuri was attacked and beaten by some of the ultranationalist thugs. In attempt to escape the suffocating smoke, he climbed to the third floor, and in doing so was exposed to chloropicrin, a toxic substance, deployed by (seethis) the pro-Maidan attackers under the cover of the fires raging in the building. Yuri’s hands and arms were badly burned and blistered by the chemical.
Yuri noted in a summary he delivered on May 3, 2026, that it was largely due to the fact that pro-Maidan extremists who rampaged in Kharkov prior to May 2, 2024, that activists in Odessa were wary of the same violence coming to their city:
“They walked around with frenzied faces, smashing everything in their path – windows, billboards, and even ordinary passersby who dared to look at them the wrong way, or God forbid, were seen wearing a St. George’s ribbon.
And these same hooligans, who were actually organized rioters, targeted Odessa for their march, under the guise of a football match.
Source: Global Research
