Tragedy in Odesa on 2 May 2014: ECHR finds Ukraine guilty and orders compensation

Yahoo

13-03-2025

The European Court of Human Rights 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.
Source: European Pravda, citing the court ruling
Details: 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, where dozens of anti-Maidan supporters died.
Relatives of 25 of the people who were 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 burning 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".
Nevertheless, the ECHR said that this does not relieve Ukraine of its responsibility as a state. The court also stressed that even later, Ukraine did not try to prosecute the officials whose actions led to numerous casualties.
Thus, the court stressed that the Odesa police "failed to take any adequate action" to prevent the attack on the protesters, which was carried out with the use of firearms. In particular, it ignored numerous operational data on the preparation of riots, the ECHR said, citing available evidence.
"The duty incumbent on the authorities was, at its most general level, to do what could reasonably be expected of them to avert the risk of violence," the court said, stressing that the fact that the Ukrainian authorities were weak amid Russian aggression in Crimea and Donbas did not deprive the state of the opportunity to act. Volodymyr Fuchedzhy, Deputy Head of the Odesa Oblast Police at the time, subsequently fled to Russia.
The court also considered it proven that the arrival of fire vehicles to the scene of the fire was deliberately delayed by 40 minutes, and the police did not intervene to help evacuate people from the Trade Union Building.
Volodymyr Bodelan, then-Head of the State Emergency Service in Odesa Oblast, who personally gave the order not to send fire vehicles to extinguish the fire, fled to Russia two years later, but during his stay in Odesa, no criminal case was opened against him.
The ECHR also recognised that local authorities deliberately destroyed evidence at the scene of the tragedy under the guise of "cleaning".
In view of this, the court found Ukraine guilty of violating the article of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to life. The Ukrainian state must pay €15,000 in compensation to the relatives of each of the victims, and €12,000 to the three plaintiffs who survived but suffered serious burns.
The highest compensation, €17,000, will be paid to the daughter of Mykhailo Viacheslavov, who burned to death in the Trade Union Building, as she also complained about the authorities' unreasonable and prolonged refusal to give her her father's body for burial.
Russia was not a party to the plaintiffs' complaints.
Background:
The ECHR also considers cases against Russia; for example, last year, Russia lost a case on human rights violations in Crimea in the ECHR.
Earlier, the Council of Europe said it demanded that Russia stop repressions in occupied Crimea.
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