Several dozen people carrying sticks attacked and beat demonstrators who were protesting against Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov early on April 26.
Three protesters were injured and hospitalized.
The attackers destroyed the protesters’ tent camp in front of City Hall, which was set up earlier this month.
The activists are demanding Trukhanov’s resignation following the publication by Hromadske TV on April 3 of documents that show Trukhanov illegally owns a large network of undeclared offshore companies.
According to the documents, Trukhanov, a former ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, holds a Russian passport, which has prompted speculation on where his allegiance lies. Double citizenship is banned by Ukrainian law. Hromadske also published documents on Trukhanov’s alleged links to organized crime.
He denies the accusations.
The unknown attackers who assaulted the protest camp were called “titushki,” a popular name for pro-government thugs. The police said five suspects had been arrested in the attack.
The anti-Trukhanov activists said the dismantled tents had been loaded onto a truck owned by Gorzelentrest, a municipal company.
Sasha Borovik, an acting deputy governor of Odesa Oblast, wrote on Facebook that a camera on the City Hall building had been turned off during the assault.
The protesters accused the mayor of organizing the attack. Trukhanov was not available for comment.
Following the assault, the protesters blocked all entrances to City Hall but later had to unblock it after a clash with Deputy Mayor Oles Yanchuk’s security guards and municipal workers.
Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili blamed the attack on Trukhanov and urged President Petro Poroshenko to send National Guardsmen to Odesa to establish order.
“There are all signs of the state’s collapse,” he said.
Saakashvili said Poroshenko had instructed the Security Service of Ukraine to investigate Trukhanov’s alleged Russian citizenship.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from the Samopomich party submitted a bill seeking to hold an early mayoral election in Odesa.
“(The crackdown on protesters) is proof of a genuine counterrevolution that’s being carried out nationwide by the authorities,” Yegor Firsov, an ex-member of the Verkhovna Rada, wrote on Facebook. “I will never believe that Bankova (the Presidential Administration) didn’t know who Trukhanov is and about his links to gangster Angel and his Russian passports and separatist views. But they have negotiated a deal and didn’t lift a finger to prevent this person from becoming mayor of a key Ukrainian city.”
Meanwhile, an office of Pivdenny Bank in Odesa was shot at with a grenade launcher late on April 25.
The events come in the run-up to the second anniversary of the May 2, 2014 clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters in Odesa, when about 40 pro-Kremlin demonstrators were killed by a fire.
Analysts speculate that pro-Russian activists are stepping up their activities in Odesa. They have been distributing posters with anti-Ukrainian slogans in recent weeks.
Anti-Trukhanov protesters with a Ukrainian flag torn by the attackers in front of Odesa’s City Hall.
Anti-Trukhanov protesters clashing with municipal workers on April 26.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]
