DISINFO: Odessa tragedy was a pre-planned massacre of people who disagreed with the coup in Kyiv
SUMMARY
It was a pre-planned, prepared massacre of people who disagreed with the coup d'état that took place on February 21, 2014, in Kyiv.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Odesa tragedy alleging that the Ukrainian government was planning the killings of people in the House of Unions. This narrative is combined with another recurrent claim about Euromaidan as a coup.
There is no evidence that the Ukrainian government was involved in the Odessa tragedy. No trial has yet established the responsibilities of the different actors before a court. A total of 5 cases on trials and 3 investigations are currently ongoing. Media reported about the tragedy in May 2014: the BBC, the Guardian, the DW. A chronology of the events has been established (1 and 2) and a non-partisan documentary film by Ukrainian Channel 7 has collected testimonies: May 2nd without Myth.
There was no coup in Ukraine. The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013, called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan", were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU as a result of Russian pressure.
See similar disinformation cases about the May 2 tragedy in Odesa: on May 2, 2014, Ukrainian fascists executed 48 residents of Odessa; death squads used by Ukraine to burn protesters in Odesa on May 2, 2014; the CIA and Victoria Nuland helped the Ukrainian secret service to orchestrate deaths of pro-Russian protesters in Odesa in May 2014; on May 2, 2014, Ukrainian authorities killed peaceful demonstrators.