SUMMARY
The May fighting in Odessa that took place between Supporters for Independence of Eastern Ukraine and Supporters of Ukrainian unity took place against the backdrop of a severe crisis engulfing Ukraine, with separatist conflicts that would later turn into a full-blown civil war erupting around the same time in both Ukraine:Donetsk and Ukraine:Lugansk.
Odessa, a town having large populations of both pro-Ukrainian, Ukrainian-speakers and pro-Russian Russophones was split by the aftermath of the overthrow of the pro-Russian Yanukovich government by the pro-European Maidan movement in January. As such, Odessa had been the stage of multiple rallies of various levels of violence between [Supporters of Ukrainian unity(/#actor/5836) and supporters of separatist movements.
On 2 May 2014, a large rally was planned in Odessa under the label of "United Ukraine". The rally contained a large number of individuals of various allegiances - from democracy supporters that were former Maidan demonstrators to extreme-right members of the Right Sector to the ordinary citizenry. The rally was further strengthened by unity supporters visiting Odessa for the Metalist Kharkiv - Odessa Chernomorets football game.
A competing rally of pro-Independence supporters, consisting of members of proto-militias wanting to emulate the success of their counterparts in Eastern Ukraine met the large rally and quickly became violent. The police and special troops sent to keep the two sides apart were quickly over-ran, and dispersed by the two sides.
The pro-Unity supporters quickly overpowered the pro-Independence supporters, forcing them to seek refuge in neighboring buildings including a mall and an official administrative building, the Trade Unions Building. Pro-Unity supporters besieged the building, with gunshots and Molotov cocktails being fired by both sides, resulting in the building being set on fire. The resulting fire quickly killed 42 people trapped into the building - reports collected by the UN Ukraine monitoring unit, with its field offices nearby, indicate some people were prevented by pro-Unity supporters from exiting the building.
Authorities were slow to intervene - the fire brigade, called by UN personnel, came to the spot in over 40 minutes despite having a station less than 650 meters away whereas the police, already overpowered, did not intervene in the situation as they did not have orders to do so.
The violence in Odessa was used as a legitimizing moment for both pro-Unity supporters, which, being shown that separatists could be defeated, rallied around the flag and joined the Ukrainian national guard and pro-Independence supporters which called it a crime against humanity and used it to justify the ensuing civil war. Those events are further described in the Ukraine:Donetsk and Ukraine:Lugansk conflicts. It further precipitated accusations of fascism by Russia, legitimizing (in the eyes of the Russian government and population) its support for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine.
Further, the aftermath of the violence was that pro-Independence forces in Odessa were basically defeated, with no pro-secession movements of importance in or around the city.
The non-state conflict between Supporters for Independence of Eastern Ukraine and Supporters of Ukrainian unity is first included in UCDP data in 2014. On 2 May 2014, clashes quickly resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
