DISINFO: The ECHR has found the Ukrainian government responsible for the Odesa massacre
SUMMARY
The European Court of Human Rights has found the Ukrainian government responsible for the Odesa massacre. The fire started by pro-European protesters at Trade Union House, which ended in a massacre causing the deaths of 42 people (some burned alive, others beaten with clubs by attackers after jumping out of the windows) including a pregnant woman.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative about the Odesa tragedy and about Nazi Ukraine.
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.
This latest claim aims to distort the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights of the 13th March 2025.
The European Court of Human Rights did not rule that the Ukraine government was responsible for the massacre in Odesa as the article falsely claims.
ECHR has made a significant ruling on several lawsuits regarding Ukraine's inaction during the clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists in Odesa on 2 May 2014, which led to the deaths of 47 people.
The court acknowledged that these events were largely provoked by Russian propaganda, but also pointed out violations committed by Ukraine, which is now required to pay compensation.
The ruling concerns the events of 2 May 2014, which began with an attack by pro-Russian anti-Maidan activists on participants of a pro-Ukrainian demonstration.
The clashes and killings of pro-Ukrainian demonstrators later led to a storming of the anti-Maidan tent camp at Kulykove Pole Square and a fire in the Trade Union House, in which dozens of anti-Maidan supporters died.
Relatives of 25 of the people killed, as well as 3 survivors of the fire, filed lawsuits to Strasbourg.
Among the plaintiffs were relatives of two pro-Ukrainian activists who were shot and killed. Three others, often identified in the media as "passers-by", also died from gunshot wounds. The rest were members of the anti-Maidan group and their relatives who were caught in the fire of Trade Union House. However, the court emphasised that it did not identify the victims by their ideological affiliations.
Despite the differences in the views of the participants in these events, all the plaintiffs held Ukraine responsible for its inaction, claiming that the state could have prevented the tragic consequences.
However, the court repeatedly stated in the body of the ruling and its conclusions that the primary culprit for the events was Russia and its actions to destabilise Ukraine.
"The Court considers that such disinformation and propaganda might have had an impact on the tragic events in the present cases too… The pro-Russian ‘Kulykove Pole’ movement in Odesa relied heavily on aggressive and emotional disinformation and propaganda messages about the new Ukrainian government and Maidan supporters voiced by Russian authorities and mass media," the ruling states.
Another point that the court decided to emphasise was that many of the Odesa officials responsible for Ukraine's violations soon "fled Ukraine to the Russian Federation, became Russian citizens, and … built a career there against the background of the Russian large-scale military invasion of Ukraine".
Read here for a detailed commentary on the ruling.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Nazi groups burned the protesters in Odessa in 2014 , on May 2, 2014, Ukrainian fascists executed 48 residents of Odessa, that death squads used by Ukraine to burn protesters in Odesa on May 2, 2014, that the CIA and Victoria Nuland helped the Ukrainian secret service to orchestrate deaths of pro-Russian protesters in Odesa in May 2014 and that The Nazis of Pravy Sektor are responsible for the massacre in Odessa on 2 May 2014.