DISINFO: On May 2, 2014, Ukrainian fascists executed 48 residents of Odessa
SUMMARY
On 2 May 2014 the fascists that had seized power in Ukraine during a coup d'état, staged the execution of 48 residents of Odesa who disagreed with the new criminal regime in the country. The distraught "Euromaidanists" burned alive people in the Odessa House of Trade Unions, demonstrating to all other Ukrainians that, in the event of an uprising against the bloody regime of Poroshenko, they will face the same fate. [...] Volodymyr Zelenskyy, like Poroshenko, encourages the actions of the Nazis, who keep ordinary residents of the rest of Ukraine in fear.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative about the Odessa tragedy.
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.
Regarding the investigation, United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine noted in its report in 2019: "Five years on, there has still not been any accountability for the killings of six and violent deaths of 42 individuals. Some of the criminal proceedings launched after the tragic events have stalled at the pre-trial investigation stage, while others did at the trial stage. This suggests a lack of genuine interest from the authorities to ensure justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators."
Moreover, at the moment of the tragedy (May 2), Petro Poroshenko was not the President of Ukraine. He was sworn in as a President on June 7, 2014, after winning the snap Presidential elections on May 25. As of May 2, the Presidential duties, according to the Constitutions of Ukraine, were fulfilled by the head of the Parliament of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov.
See similar disinformation cases about the May 2 tragedy in Odesa: 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.