The chain of events that led up to the tragedy on Friday night is already a matter not only of debate, but of partisan loyalty.
What can be said with certainty is that trouble began ahead of a football match between the home side, Chornomorets Odessa, and the visitors, Metalist Kharkiv.
Ukraine's football ultras were strongly in favour of the revolution in the 'Maidan' - as Independence Square in the heart of Kiev is universally known - which brought down Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian regime in February. The two rival sets of supporters arranged to join a march for Ukrainian unity organised to take place ahead of Friday's match.
The crowd, which included ordinary members of the public as well as members of the 'Maidan Self Defence forces' and at least some members of Pravy Sektor, a hardline nationalist group, began to gather at around 2pm in Cathedral Square.
Before they reached the stadium, however, witnesses said the march was attacked by men who appeared to be pro-Russian activists, sporting the black and orange ribbon of St George.
The assault by the pro-Russians appears to have been planned. Witnesses and video footage show the attackers were well equipped for a street fight, with shields, helmets, sticks and body armour.
But so, too, were the marchers. Once the clash started, casualties were almost inevitable.
Dr Andrei Vegerzhinsky, the chief doctor of Odessa's Hospital No. 1, soon knew that he was in for a long day. 'The way we work, is that I always have a phone on so I can be alerted if a major incident happens. I got that call about 3pm' he remembered.
'The stream of casualties began about 4pm and it continued until 1am,' added Dr Vegerzhinsky. 'In principle, we're ready to deal with lots of casualties - we're prepared for earthquakes, bus crashes, you name it - but we weren't ready for this.'
Both sides were fighting with bricks, improvised clubs, petrol bombs and firearms, although it is not yet clear whether they were loaded with live rounds or rubber bullets.
The surgeons at Hospital No. 1, who treated 90 people, said they saw multiple gunshot wounds, certainly including those inflicted by rubber ammunition. But they could not say whether they had seen the aftermath of live bullets.
At 6.40pm, an ambulance delivered a patient with a gunshot wound that had severed an artery. The victim died of blood loss on the operating table 20 minutes later.
Oleg Konstantinov, the editor in chief of a local news website, arrived in hospital with his own wounds shortly afterwards. He had witnessed what he called 'a real street battle.'
Amid the chaos, the pro-Maidan group stole a fire engine and used it to ram aside some barricades built by their opponents to obstruct their march.
By the time Mr Konstantinov came to the scene, he believes that at least one person had already died. The fighting had spread from the sidestreets to coalesce in Gretska street, a main thoroughfare in central Odessa.
He was one of few witnesses to credit the police with actually trying to do something.
At one point, the police attempted to form a cordon to separate the two sides. 'And at that point shooting started. I saw at least three, maybe four, policemen fall in front of my eyes,' said Mr Konstantinov.
Before long, he was himself was in hospital - struck in the forearm, leg and back between 5pm and 6pm. 'I thought it was a bullet, but the doctor said today it is probably shrapnel,' he said, motioning to his forearm. His leg and back wounds, he suspects, were caused by rounds from a 'traumatic pistol.'
Mr Konstantinov, who expects to be out of hospital in two days, is lucky. Of the 90 people who arrived at Hospital No. 1 - one of four that took in casualties that night - 23 are still being treated. Of these, nine have bullet wounds - and four are in a serious condition.
They include a police captain, who has serious injuries to his liver and kidneys, and one man whose lung was punctured.
The battle lasted into the evening, when a group of pro-Russians, heavily outnumbered, managed to break away. Some witnesses say they melted through the police lines without being stopped.
At this point, an enraged crowd decided to march on the House of Trade Unions, located beside a park where pro-Russians had set up a small protest camp some weeks ago.
'They decided to clear them out. They were angry after what had happened on the streets,' said Alexandra, a local resident who was among the crowd that day.
The pro-Maidan football fans and self-defence units quickly destroyed the camp, setting fire to the tents. The pro-Russians tried to make a last stand on the steps of the House of Trade Unions, throwing up barricades around the great stone pillars in front of the doors. Finally, they were forced to retreat inside.
We will probably never know whose petrol bomb began the fire that eventually spread throughout the building, but this inferno ended up killing 32 people.
Witnesses sympathetic to the pro-Maidan movement point out that video footage appears to show the fire beginning on the third floor, behind an intact window - and out of reach of the petrol bombs thrown by the crowd outside. Maybe, they say, a pro-Russian dropped a petrol bomb by accident.
This is a possible explanation. But there is also no doubt that petrol bombs were being hurled in both directions. Only a full investigation might discover where exactly the fire started. Even then, it will probably never be clear whether the carnage was pre-meditated or accidental.
Once the blaze took hold, Alexandra said that the pro-Maidan crowd tried to rescue the pro-Russians inside. 'Some of the self-defence got hold of some scaffolding and used it to get access to the second floor window, where they got people out from,' she said.
As people tried to escape from the burning building, however, some were set upon by pro-Maidan demonstrators. Others in the march formed a protective corridor to provide safe passage for the pro-Russian escapers to reach police vehicles.
But many of the friends and relatives of the dead are convinced that extreme elements in the crowd had murder on their minds from the beginning. 'Those Nazis set themselves the task of herding people into this building and killing them,' said one man, who asked not to be named. 'They were peaceful protesters here. We have been here for months in these tents.'
Moris Ibrahimov said: 'The people who lived in the tents went into the building simply to avoid bloodshed. But those fascists had the task of killing the people who were here.'
{ 0 comments... Views All / Send Comment! }
Post a Comment