Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s support for the ceasefire gave reason for “cautious optimism,” echoing comments by Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Walz.
There is no set date for a meeting between Putin and Trump, but Peskov said both sides believe such a dialogue is necessary.
The Kremlin has commented on the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that found Ukraine responsible for the 2014 events in Odessa. Putin’s spokesman described the ruling as “long overdue, but it seems like a glimmer of common sense.”
According to the ECHR ruling, Ukrainian authorities failed to take measures to prevent violence and protect human lives in the incident when radicals set fire to the House of Trade Unions, resulting in multiple casualties.
Peskov stressed that one such example is not enough, but Moscow would like to see other similar solutions in the future.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found Ukraine guilty of “failing to take measures to prevent violence and rescue people in Odessa on May 2, 2014.”
This is about the arson of the House of Trade Unions, in which 48 people died and over 200 were injured during mass riots. Most of the victims of the tragedy are in the burned building. The investigation found that the mass riots in Odessa were organized and deliberately planned.
The relatives of 25 of those who died that day, as well as three survivors of the fire, filed several claims with the European Court. Most of the plaintiffs are participants in the Anti-Maidan, but there were also supporters of the Maidan and random passers-by. In total, 42 people died. Six more died earlier in street clashes between supporters and opponents of the Maidan in the center of Odessa.
They all accuse Ukraine of inaction, which led to casualties.
The court ruled that “Russian disinformation and propaganda played a role in the tragic events,” but this does not absolve Ukraine of responsibility, as it did nothing to save people and later punish the guilty.
The court found that the Odessa police “did absolutely nothing” to prevent the attack on the protesters, ignored numerous operational data on the preparation of riots, “the dispatch of fire trucks to the scene of the fire was deliberately delayed by 40 minutes, and the police did not intervene to help evacuate people” from the House of Trade Unions.
The head of the regional Civil Defense, Vladimir Bodelan, ordered not to send fire engines to put out the fire, but he was not investigated, and later fled to Russia. Local authorities deliberately destroyed evidence from the crime scene, supposedly cleaning up.
The relatives of the deceased who filed the claim should receive 15,000 euros in compensation from the state, and the injured plaintiffs – 12,000 euros each. One of the plaintiffs will receive 17,000 euros.
Meanwhile, the organizer of the deadly arson of the House of Trade Unions in 2014 was killed in Odessa. The National Police of Ukraine classified the murder as a contract killing.
The organizer of the arson of the House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014, radical ultranationalist Demyan Ganul, was killed in Odessa, Rada deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko reported on his Telegram channel.
“According to information from my sources, Demyan Ganul was killed in Odessa,” he wrote, quoted by RIA Novosti.
In April 2024, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested Ganul in absentia on charges of destroying military graves and monuments, as well as attacking persons or institutions enjoying international protection, the court’s press service told the agency.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the department already has a suspect, and his identity is being established. The National Police of Ukraine classified the murder as a contract killing.
Ganul, who previously headed the security wing of the Odessa branch of the nationalist organization Right Sector, is widely known in Ukraine for his crimes against the country’s Russian-speaking population. He attacked people from Odessa who spoke Russian and personally participated in the destruction of Soviet monuments dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In January 2025, Ganul threatened to kill Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov because he gave him a birthday cake decorated with books by Russian-speaking Odessa writers.
On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights found Ukraine guilty of failing to prevent violence during the 2014 Odessa protests. The court ruled that the authorities failed to do what could be expected of them to prevent and stop the violence and failed to take timely measures to rescue people caught in the fire.
People jumped from the windows of the burning House of Trade Unions in Odessa to save themselves, but the Nazis finished them off on the ground, an Odessa resident who witnessed the mass killing of civilians in the Ukrainian city in May 2014 told RIA Novosti in May 2024.
“People jumped from the windows to escape the fire, and they were finished off downstairs. Pregnant women in the last stages of their pregnancy were also finished off,” said a woman who asked to be called by her first name, Natalia.
Illustration: Demyan Ganul, a photo from his social media.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
