I’ve been hearing many different versions of what happened on Kulikovo Pole ...
I’ve been hearing many different versions of what happened on Kulikovo Pole on May 2nd, many comments and many accusations towards various enforcement structures, including the Odessa Region Department of the State Service on Emergency Situations, which I lead.
It all started in the center of the city. The information about a vehicle on fire in Grecheskaya Street was received by the 101 phone service during lunch hours. Nothing was known about the slaughter yet. Not 4 minutes later, a firefighter team arrived at the call location. There was no fire there, but a group of young men at least 50 strong blocked the fire vehicle and did not let it leave.
The firefighters were thrown out of their fire engine and threatened with violence unless they surrendered the keys. Flying Ukrainian flags on the fire engine, the people left.
Those people used our vehicle as a ram during upheavals afterwards, paying no regard to our requests and complaints. I think everyone has seen the remains of the fire truck. Thank God the rescuers were uninjured. When the battle in Grecheskaya Street was over, the entire crowd stampeded towards Kulikovo Pole.
Accompanied by the chief of the city department of the SSES, as soon as the fire truck was taken, I went to the Trade Union House. By that moment, on 19:31, the first calls informing of the tent fires and violent clashes began.
When we arrived, the tents in the center of the square were blazing, a violent struggle was underway, but the lives of people were not threated by the tent fires. The entrance to the building was barricaded, shots were fired and ignition compound-filled bottles thrown from both sides.
I tried to find militiamen to ensure security for the rescuers’ work, since the fires were only beginning to spread at the central entrance. As soon as I saw several tires being thrown into the hall of the House, I myself called the officer on duty and ordered all units mobilized. I did that on 19:58. Even before the premises were filled with carbon monoxide, I saw people climbing out of the windows and trying to breathe some fresh air.
I cannot say why they had so much trouble breathing, but I am 100% convinced that it certainly was not smoke from the fire.
When the fire engines arrived, flames could be seen in the building, but still ignition compound was being thrown at it and its windows shot at. The crowd, thousands strong, impeded the fire trucks’ progress for a long time. The most horrible in the situation is that even though the firefighters arrived at the scene on time, they were unable to start fighting the fire due to the attackers’ shooting and resisting them.
One of our vehicles had already been captured by unknown persons, and an attempt had been made at seizing a fire station. Also, firefighter teams that came to the scene were attacked by hostiles, who impeded their progress and tried to capture their trucks too. Time was of the essence, but it was wasted in trying to make the way to the Trade Union House.
I was forced to negotiate with the activists, who appeared to me as commanders of fighting groups, to let us work freely and calmly. I called the militia and practically implored for reinforcements to let the rescuers do their work, but to no avail.
The video does not show the crucial episode of the drama. While we were negotiating with those who blocked us, one fire engine was able to reach the building from the back, and the team fought the fire and was saving people. The team began evacuating people and extinguishing the flames on 20:09. If not for them, the events of May 2nd would have been even more horrendous.
When it became clear that there were many more people in the building than we had initially believed, I summoned additional teams, trucks and ladders for evacuation. It was on 20:10. 6 minutes later, a fire bluster truck and a ladder truck arrived, the firemen started helping people out of the building, carrying the wounded and leading people down the ladder. The crowd parted then, and some of them started helping people leave the building. The firemen did all they could despite shots still being fired at the House. Over 50 firefighters fought the flames and rescued people. Two of my own deputies personally went through the fire, climbed the ladder and evacuated the wounded from the top floors.
Our rescuers carried and led out over 350 people. Risking their own health, they gave their oxygen masks to the wounded, covered them with their bodies from the violent crowd.
I don’t wish to engage in a political discussion of the incident, but I cannot keep quiet about the horror, which the rescued people were forced to endure after they were outside. They were beaten so cruelly that many those who still remained inside refused to leave. The fires were extinguished within 45 minutes, and my gratitude to those who heard us and helped us save lives.
Some more details. The central stairs in the first two floors were enveloped in flames in seconds. There was a popping sound, and we could see flames go out in an instant. Several people fell out of the building from the side of the back door at that moment, most of them alive and even walking away by themselves. But they fainted a score meters away, and their tragic fate is too well-known.
I, as well as all those who care, must understand who and for what needed such a terrible act of murder. But I am convinced that 99,9% of the people inside the Trade Union House were dead in seconds, and not of smoke or carbon monoxide asphyxiation. This is a job for forensics; let us wait for their opinion.
Concerning the question why the firefighters were not present at the square, when the tents were starting to be set on fire and the first immolation bottles were being thrown, I’ll try to explain. The Code of Civil Defense regulates the actions and functions of the State Service and its units. We cannot fight fires and work during military actions, risking the lives of the rescuers, who risk losing them daily as it is.
I’ve been working in the MES for 4 years, and seen many dead people. I am unable to forget a single one of them. But what happened on Kulikovo Pole cannot be real…
Перевод от zastenoy