The videos and photos showed Ukrainian riot police standing by doing nothing to stop or prevent the violence. The Ukrainian police said they could do nothing because they were “unarmed.”
As the building burned, some of the pro-Kiev activists said on Twitter that “Colorado beetles are being roasted up in Odessa,” using a derogatory term for the St. George’s ribbons worn by many of the anti-Kiev government demonstrators.
“The aim is to completely clear Odessa of pro-Russians,” said Dmitry Rogovsky, another Right Sector activist whose hand was injured during the fighting.
In the mostly Russian regions of eastern Ukraine, a violent war ensued between the Kiev government and separatists. By the end of 2021, it had taken over 15,000 lives. Commanders from openly neo-Nazi and fascist groups like the Azov Battalion were integrated to become brigades of the official Ukrainian Armed Forces and given free rein in the Donbass.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/the-odessa-trade-union-massacre-ten-years-later/