{"article":{"id":264128,"heading":"Odessa Massacre: Eyewitness Account","author":"Stephen Lendman","created":"2014-05-10 07:41:30","modified":"2014-05-10 07:41:30","last_modified":"Sat, 10 May 2014 14:41:30","article":"

Odessa Massacre: Eyewitness Account

by Stephen Lendman

Palestinians remember Deir Yassin. Poles remember Katyn Forest. Native Americans remember Wounded Knee.

Odessans won't forget May 2. Nor will people of conscience everywhere paying attention.

Massacring people in cold blood exposed the worst of fascist extremism. Neo-Nazi Right Sector thugs committed mass murder.

Kiev putschists ordered them to do so. Washington OK'd their atrocity. What happened was well planned in advance.

A previous article discussed it. About 300 Ukrainians were slaughtered. Fire didn't take them. Neo-Nazi hoodlums did.

Mass murder was mostly inside Odessa's Trade Union House (TUH) building. People perished inside from gunshot wounds, strangulation and beatings. Some were thrown from windows. They didn't jump.

Photographic evidence is damning. Independent videos don't lie. Nor does graphic eyewitness testimony.

A survivor told what she saw. Anatoly Shary interviewed her. In translation she explained what she witnessed firsthand.

A video in Ukrainian shows what she said below. It includes Shary's comments. The full text is as follows:

00:07 Regarding the exact time, I can’t tell you, because - let's see - how did it go -

00:11 When I was on the Cathedral Square, I personally saw with my own eyes how a man of maybe around 40 - they cut -

00:23 They pushed him on the ground and cut his throat - and they shouted, \"Glory to Ukraine.\"

00:29 He kept saying, barely audibly, simply that, \"I'm a native of Odessa. I'm from Odessa.\"

00:36 And they, sort of, \"No, you're not from Odessa.\" And then they continued -

00:42 Anatoly Shary: This was right on the Cathedral Square?

00.43 This was right on the Cathedral Square. Right there.

00:49 So, I stayed there just a couple of minutes. I simply - I don't know. I could not be there. I could not watch all that and I left.

00:58 Then I hailed a taxi and drove to the Kulikovo Field.

01:08 When I arrived there, the barricades were already erected

near the tents. They were built like this.

01:20 The barricades were - there were tires - then various billboards -

01:30 The sacks (with sand) were there.

01:36 Everything happened so quickly. Someone said that

we all have to get inside the Trades Union building.

01:42 Everyone quickly began carrying everything into the building

and reinforcing everything inside.

01:49 So, people were getting into the building very quickly, because all those Pravoseky (Right Sector neo-Nazis), those fiends - they were arriving on the black-and-white minibuses.

02:12 And some were getting there on foot, and others by some other means.

02:18 So, we went to the building.

02:28 There were men, both young and older, and women were there too.

02:31 I saw several adolescents.

02:37 Regarding the arms, I personally, did not see anyone with it.

02:40 Anatoly Shary: (…)

02:42 This I can say with certainty. How many - uh -

02:50 As you come in into that building, immediately there was a staircase that went up.

02:55 And you could also turn left there.

02:58 To the right, I don’t remember, I saw some staircase and one could also turn there left.

03:04 The majority of the people immediately ran up the stairs.

03:14 Anatoly Shary: (…)

03:16 Then, a man - I did not go up at all. I don't even know what was there.

03:22 Then I turned to the left. There were several offices there.

03:28 What was there. I entered one office. I don't recall the number.

03:37 Everything was as if in a haze.

03:40 There, the people - there was a large sack with bats.

03:52 And the people went there, the men, naturally, and took them.

03:56 The women went only with, sort of - we were given these little sacks that contained some cotton, the brilliant green, and the gauze. And that was it.

04:07 Anatoly Shary: (…)

04:11 That was the first floor.

04:15 So, near that office, right opposite it, there was a service staircase, and it was blocked, but very badly. It was blocked with just several crates with documents. Other than that, one could go in and out easily.

04:41 Then I went up to the second floor.

04:50 There, basically, everybody was barricading only the intermittent doors.

04:53 Everyone began to barricade them.

04:57 I did not quite understand why barricade the intermittent ones.

05:07 Because if…no one could get any further.

05:14 So I was quite perplexed by that.

05:19 and so - I was already - ah yes - when I was already on the second floor, I saw that many of the pro-Maindan (supporters) were gathering around.

05:33 …they surrounded us all around.

05:36 Anatoly Shary: (…)

05:38 They surrounded us all around. They were all around the building.

05:41 And then literally - well, I don't know, maybe in a couple of minutes.

05:47 Before they started hurling the Molotovs, the water was cut off.

05:50 There was no water in the building whatsoever.

05:53 But the people - I saw some of them had managed to fill up several large bottles with water.

06:00 They were pouring water near the windows.

06:08 I was in shock. I asked the woman, \"What are you doing?\"

06:10 I said, \"You should never pour water, because water with gasoline will ignite even faster.\"

06:18 I don't know, maybe even in school they tell you about this.

06:25 So I went up to the third floor.

06:32 I looked around and saw who was doing what.

06:33 I have a photo where you can see. I personally orientated myself…on the third floor.

06:45 Or intermediate between the second and the third

on the stair landing.

06:50 When it ignited, in the middle, behind the…and behind it.

06:59 That middle part began to burn.

07:03 So, I don’t know how much time passed. I could not say precisely, but no more than thirty minutes passed since we got there.

07:11 Anatoly Shary: How much...

07:18 No more than 30 minutes. Maybe a bit longer.

07:20 I cannot tell you the exact time just like this, but

07:24 30 minutes definitely passed since we got there.

07:27 Then I went downstairs and heard shooting inside the building.

07:37 They were shooting inside the building.

07:44 A man was standing near me. He had a fire extinguisher.

07:46 He said, \"Don’t go down there. The Right Sector is already there.\"

07:51 I said, \"What do you mean? How could they get here so fast?\"

07:54 He said, \"Don’t go down there.\"

08:02 I understood then that I should indeed listen to this person.

08:09 And so I went up to the third floor and then,

08:13 Probably in a couple of minutes, a man came up there. He was about 40 and was scrawny, very scrawny.

08:26 He said, \"Everybody, come down.\"

08:29 I said, \"Why?”\"

08:31 He said, \"Everybody, come down. The Right Sector is there.

We have to fight them off.\"

08:35 Well, I don’t know. I personally did not go there.

08:41 I saw a man and a woman go down there, and another two guys.

08:50 How they came up - that I already did not see.

08:55 Anatoly Shary: (…asks if somebody had something…)

09:00 Who? I don’t know. I personally did not see any of our people who were there to have any arms.

09:08 Look, then - on the third floor - where the third floor is -

09:15 as you go up, you can turn to the right and you can turn left there too.

09:21 If you turn right, you can make a quick dash for the staircase that stood...

09:30 There - already! In that flight, a man was lying. He was burned.

09:39 Uh - no - right, a man, and a woman was lying there too. They had been brought down from the fourth floor.

09:47 In other words, already? How come? I don’t know.

09:58 Then - on the stairs - maybe approximately 10 people were there.

10:04 Everything was in smoke. Totally. Even though - I don’t even know.

10:16 It was not quite smoke. I just cannot describe it to you in words.

10:20 The smell was such that, if you stayed there 5 minutes,

10:23 Right away you get like this, disoriented.

10:27 Anatoly Shary: And what...

10:30 I don't know what it was.

10:33 I don't know what was burning like this.

10:36 I am telling you, literally 5 minutes and that’s it. Everything starts looking hazy.

10:39 Immediately I put on the mask and run out of there.

10:46 When I came back to the stairwell, I heard a man

10:47 who was - I don't know, probably he was on the second floor

11:00 because, if he were on the first floor, I doubt I would hear him shout so loudly.

11:04 He was shouting that - how was it he said,

11:11 \"The Right Sector are coming up, everybody run!\"

11:15 Now, we ran into an office. This was on the third floor.

11:21 God, what number was it? Three hundred and thirty something - that was that office number.

11:30 336 maybe? I think it was 336.

11:37 In the room, there were, maybe - I don’t know - about 10 people. 10 men and there were four girls.

11:55 Two girls were the medics. I and another girl, we sort of helped out. We assisted the best we could.

12:06 We moistened them with water.

12:12 Quickly, we were, sort of, like military medics brigade. Something like this.

12:17 Right after I ran into this office.

12:22 immediately after it, two men were brought in. They had suffocated.

12:27 They laid them near the wall, like this.

12:31 They were already dead.

12:33 They had no pulse, no nothing.

12:39 So, then - how long -

12:45 In about 10 minutes, a man ran into the room.

12:52 He wore a mask.

12:57 The thing was - all the people that I saw there, the people who were there.

13:07 None of us had masks.

13:12 We only had medical masks and wore them like this or like that on the face.

13:17 He ran into our room, in a mask, and said that the Right Sector was about to come up the stairs to where we were - any moment now.

13:26 And he ran out.

13:28 The men immediately began to move the filing cabinets and

pile them up against the door.

13:35 Anatoly Shary: (what they began to do?)

13:37 The men took the filing cabinets that were there, and the desks, and began to barricade the door with them.

13:46 And then literally, about 2-3 minutes passed - there were many shots.

13:55 During those 2-3 minutes, I would estimate I heard about 20 shots.

14:00 Anatoly Shary: (…in the hallway?)

14:03 In the hallway. They were shooting in the hallway.

14:06 But there were no screams at all. There was not a sound other than the shots. And nothing else.

14:13 And then, these couple of minutes passed.

14:19 They came by the door saying,

14:23 \"Let us in. Let us in. We are with you.\"

14:26 \"They are killing us.\"

14:30 The men began to loiter, kind of, should we let them in or not.

14:35 One man barely pushed over the filing cabinet, literally, just this distance...

14:41 And at once, like this, they stuck the handguns out and began to shoot at us.

14:47 They began shooting at once. The moment the filing cabinet was moved.

14:52 So - how was it?

14:56 Yes - they began shooting - I'm standing.

15:01 I saw a guy. I think it was a guy. He was wearing a mask. He was looking straight into my eyes, and

15:07 Just like this, he is shooting at me.

15:10 Anatoly Shary: (…)

5:12 The bullet swished by me like this. I turned around and

15:13 Saw the bullet in the wall.

15:15 I ducked.

15:17 and hid behind the desk like this,

15:20 So that they, sort of, don't kill me.

15:22 And I hear him shout joyfully,

15:26 “Hurray, hurray, I killed a Coloradka!\"

(Coloradka is a derogatory term for a female pro-Russian activist. It's derived from some similarity of brown and orange stripes of St. George ribbon to the Colorado beetle.)

15:29 I was in such a shock.

15:31 I can't even describe this to you.

15:34 I did not -at all - I did not expect that a person could rejoice so much over killing someone.

15:43 He was looking me straight in the eyes and simply shot at me.

15:47 Anatoly Shary: (…)

15:50 It was a military weapon.

15:56 Then men - uh, we - women began to scream, \"Save us, save us!\"

16:00 The men were holding the filing cabinets as hard as they could to prevent them from breaking in.

16:07 And the thing was, the filing cabinets did not cover that doorway completely.

16:15 Above, there remained a gap, into which -

16:22 Well, it was possible to could climb through it, if one tried hard enough.

16:30 If a person was not large, but of a slim physique.

16:34 They began - they began to persuade us. I don't remember what they were saying.

16:44 Because my ears were ringing.

16:46 They began, maybe - how many - they sprayed on us at least two fire extinguishes, for sure.

16:52 We were screaming. We were just begging them not to kill us.

16:59 Uh - four - maybe - yes, they sprayed on us probably 3-4 cans.

17:05 I want you to understand, that office had 2 large windows.

17:10 But the gas that they sprayed on us just did not dissipate.

17:14 At all! The cloud just stood there.

17:18 Anatoly Shary: (…)

17:23 What?

17:24 Anatoly Shary: (…fire extinguisher…)

17:28 Well, maybe. I don't know. So much was going on there.

17:30 2 fire extinguishers for sure. They simply sprayed them on us from that gap above.

17:38 While we were screaming and begging them not to kill us.

17:41 Then, those 3-4 cans - I don't know what was in those cans -

all that gas just remained in the room. It did not air out.

17:56 Despite that the windows were opened.

17:58 And then - the men struggled for a while,

18:07 And, I don't know. They simply started to get disoriented from that gas.

18:14 In those cans, I suspect, it was not a good gas at all, I'll tell you.

18:20 How long we were in that room - I don’t know.

18:25 maybe about 15 minutes, but you know, it seemed like eternity, honestly.

18:33 As soon as the men decided to move away from those filing cabinets and let them in, the hell broke loose.

18:46 Them spraying us with gas seemed like a fairyland in comparison.

18:51 The moment they got in, they began shooting at the men right away,

18:55 At once, without a word.

19:00 And one of them shouted, \"Don’t touch the chicks!\"

19:07 They sat us all four women on the chairs against the wall near the window.

19:16 Like this. Here was the window and like this was the wall,

19:22 And we sat like this, all in a row.

19:25 Near the other wall, there were the bodies of those two men.

19:35 We kept telling them to stop beating them, that they were dead,

19:37 but they kept beating them with bats anyway.

19:42 There were several Right Sector (thugs) there for sure and one of those who broke into our room said,

19:56 \"Don’t waste the ammo on them, better finish them off like this.”

20:00 Well, I don't know - what to - how to describe this to you -

20:08 Oh God.

20:14 So, they decided

20:22 to get us out - as they said, \"Get the chicks out and all these…\"

20:25 Anatoly Shary: (…how…?)

20:27 They decided it among themselves. I'm telling you word for word.

20:35 \"Let the chicks go.

20:38 And all these go to the basement. We'll finish them off there.\"

20:40 Anatoly Shary: (…) to the basement?

20:43 To the basement.

20:47 While they were deciding who of the women would go first,

20:51 others had already started to take the bodies out.

20:53 Anatoly Shary: How, what?

20:57 While they were deciding who of the women would go out of the room first,

20:59 the others were already taking the bodies out of the room, out of that office.

21:05 They simply dragged them on the floor.

21:10 Anatoly Shary: And what became of...

21:15 What?

Anatoly Shary: What became of your (…)?

21:18 They killed everyone.

Anatoly Shary: Killed everyone?

21:20 Everyone at once.

21:23 The man who

21:25 was lying right by my feet.

21:29 He was all covered in blood and

21:30 he was breathing like this.

21:33 They did not let me even to bandage his head.

21:39 Anatoly Shary: He was (…)?

21.42 They beat him with bats.

21:44 Anatoly Shary: (…)

21:48 They - yes - they said, \"Don’t waste the ammo on them, better finish them off like this.\"

21:53 Anatoly Shary: (…)

21:56 The first woman they took away, I don't know where she is.

22:08 Then, as soon as they took me out of that office, I began to beg them

22:15 to please let me go, because

22:17 I have a small child. Get me out of there...

22:22 (cut)

22:23 \"…to hell with this one and this one off to the basement.\"

22:24 Anatoly Shary: (…)

22:30 I don’t know. It seemed, there you simply did as you wanted, if you wanted to kill then you killed, and if you wanted to get someone out then you got her out.

22:38 I simply took my phone out and began showing them the pictures of my child.

22:42 I said, \"Take a look, this is my baby, he is only three.\"

22:47 \"I am a native of Odessa. What are you doing?”

22:50 They could not care less.

22:52 The only thing one of them said was that -

22:55 He said, sort of - yes: \"I am a Chernomoretz (Odessa soccer team) fan.

23:01 And no way in hell will you ever get for yourselves Odessa republic here.\"

23:04 What connection there was between the two, frankly, I did not get it.

23:13 They had a leader.

23:17 Well, he was quite well-built.

23:22 A big man, all covered in tattoos. Totally.

23:30 (…) the handgun.

23:32 It had a thing, sort of like a roulette.

23:37 Anatoly Shary: (…) revolver?

23:38 (…) yes and in my presence he loaded it with bullets.

23:44 And I stood there, like this, I saw everything.

23:46 The doors (…). I saw how they were dragging the people.

23:56 I don't know where they were taking them.

23:56 Anatoly Shary: (…)

23:59 I don't know.

24:01 I just saw them dragging the bodies.

24:26 Whether they were alive or not - they would not let me approach them anyway.

24:09 (cut)

24:10…through the back exit, the one that is in the back of the building.

24:16 The one I told you about, that was blocked with a couple of crates, but you could get through without much difficulty.

24:24 Anatoly Shary: (…)

24:30 What?

24:33 \"(…) take these to the basement. We will finish them off there.\"

24:38 Anatoly Shary: (…)

24:39 I don't know.

24:41 The woman that was walking behind me began to scream and then went silent.

24:45 I don't know - how long was I there? They probably searched me for

24:50 about 15 minutes.

24:54 I did not see her to come out.

24:56 Anatoly Shary: (…)

25:01 They were everywhere.

25:03 Anatoly Shary: (…)

25:12 Uh - the moment we - firstly, when they took me out of the office, I was already

25:20 walking on corpses.

25:21 Then we went on the stairs and there I only saw blood.

25:26 I only saw them in the hallway. They were dragging the bodies.

25:31 Where they were dragging them - I don't know.

25:33 Were they alive or dead?

25:38 Well - they did not make a sound and they did not move at all.

25:50 Anatoly Shary: (…)

25:58 (cut)

26:00 those who - I don't know, when they cut off the water.

26:08 When more of the Right Sector (thugs) arrived. When they already surrounded us,

26:14 they began shooting right away.

26:20 Anatoly Shary: (…)

26:25 Well - yes, I think 10 people.

26:28 Yes.

26:30 Yes.

26:33 Anatoly Shary: (…)

26:37 Yes.

26:38 Anatoly Shary: (…)

26:42 The girl who

26:46 was there with me, I am still in touch with her.

26:48 She saw all that too.

26:50 But I don't know if she would be able to corroborate this or not,

26:55 because she -

26:57 her husband was there too, but he was not with us in the office.

27:00 He too was badly burned.

27:04 But they are hiding now,

27:06 because on the 3rd -

27:11 today's the 4th, right -

27:20 they took all the documents from the hospital. The people from the SBU came

27:22 and took all the data, all the records of the people who were brought in from the Kulikovo Field.

27:30 Anatoly Shary: (…)

27:34 I don't know. I only saw how they were throwing them at us -

27:37 (cut) That woman, by the way, the photo that you posted online. She is on that photo.

27:45 Anatoly Shary: (…)

27:48 She had a short haircut.

27:53 She had - she had

28:02 a beige top

28:03 with something like lace or

28:05 something similar.

28:07 I remember it very vaguely. There was lots of smoke there.

28:10 Anatoly Shary: (…)

28:12 I would not be able to describe it to you precisely in details.

28:14 She was already barely alive.

28:19 She could barely breathe.

28:20 She was saying something.

28:24 Honestly, I can't remember what she was saying.

28:29 I'm telling you, I could not stand being there, because

28:34 after 5 minutes you would start getting disoriented.

28:39 Anatoly Shary: (…)

28:40 Because I did not see any Molotov cocktails inside.

28:44 I only saw how they hurled them at us.

28:48 Anatoly Shary: (…)

28:52 Yes, the people who were trying to get out to safety,

28:54 not all of them, but some of them were shot.

28:57 (…) Yes.

29:04 Anatoly Shary: (…)

29:07 Yes, okay.

The above account described some of what happened.

Other atrocities included rape, strangling a pregnant woman with an electric wire, hacking people to death with axes, beating them to death with bats, and throwing them out of windows.

Survivors able to get out were attacked outside. Most were murdered in cold blood. Official accounts concealed what happened. Media scoundrels regurgitated official lies.

Expect similar disturbing incidents to repeat. Perhaps much greater ones. Expect the worst to come. Fascist extremists operate this way.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net<\/a>.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled \"Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.\"

http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/a>

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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