There is no evidence of Russia’s involvement in the Friday massacre in Odessa, US Ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt had to admit Sunday as he spoke by telephone on a CNN program.
Friday, May 2, football fans who had come to Odessa from the northeast city of Kharkov as well as the combatants from two far-right extremist organizations, the Right Sector and the Maidan Self-Defense Force clashed with the supporters of federalization of Ukraine in downtown Odessa.
They set fire to the regional House of the Trade Unions and a tent camp near it where activists had been gathering signatures in favor of a referendum for federalization of Ukraine and for granting Russian the status of a second state language.
As a result of the tragic events, 46 people died and more than 200 survivors had to turn for medical aid.
“We don’t have evidence of the Russian role in […] the tragedy that transpired on Friday,” Pyatt said answering the anchor Candy Crowley’s downright aggressive question on whether he believed that Russia was behind “this bloodiest day thus far in this back-and-forth [the course of the Ukrainian crisis]”.
Pyatt mentioned the blunt accusations towards Russia that the prime minister of the incumbent Kiev government, Arseny Yatsenyuk, had made in Odessa earlier in the day.
“And this is something that we hope an impartial and systematic investigation will be able to get to the bottom of very quickly,” he said.
Pyatt indicated that he could not understand clearly why the Friday massacre had taken place.
“[…] having spent some time in Odessa just three weeks ago and spoken with a broad range of political and civil society leaders, there’s nothing that I heard and saw while I was in that city which would explain what transpired on Friday night,” Pyatt indicated.
“At this point, the whole country is trying to figure out what happened, how to pull together, and how to make sure that those who are trying to divide the country will not be successful,” he said.
“Most disturbingly, there seems to be evidence in social media that some of the police in Odessa may have been complicit in allowing the violence to explode out of control way it did.”
A private military company is in charge of suppressing protest movements in Eastern Ukraine, said a source in the country’s Security Service. According to him, the name of the company is Greystone Limited.
According to a source cited by ITAR-TASS, Ukrainian authorities believe that the Security Service is not able to suppress the protest mood and neutralize the leaders and activists of the pro-Russian movement in the eastern regions. In particular, the source said, the acting president Alexander Turchinov shares this opinion.
“Therefore it was decided to attract foreign mercenaries, who will serve as political police and state security protection, ” said the representative of the Security Service.
He informed that the initiative to attract mercenaries belongs to oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky and Sergei Taruta, appointed governors of Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
Self-defense forces in the anti-Kiev stronghold of Slavyansk are Ukrainians, not Russians, who distrust the new regime and the Western powers that support it, New York Times reporters have discovered. The forces also said they are not being paid to fight.
Source: VoR/RT