^Back To Top
On July 24, 2017, the senior forensic expert of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Mr S.V. Iskruk posted a video recording in the Italian version of YouTube in which he reports that just before making this recording he had to leave the territory of Ukraine.
Mr. Iskruk, in the video, after stating his name and showing his face, makes the following statements:
"... in 2015, I was involved in the inquiry into the fire at the House of Trade Unions, where questions were raised about the cause of many deaths, including actions or inaction of employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, occupational safety and health."
"... in 2016, the report of the inquiry was issued. It fully answered questions about the cause of the deaths and what had led to it."
"... after the release of the report in 2016, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine began to exert pressure on me. I was first asked to rewrite the conclusions about the cause of the deaths, then verbally threatened, then physically threatened."
"... the last incident occurred when two people wearing clothing with stripes of the Right Rector approached me. They told me that they would bring me a version of the inquiry that reaches different conclusions about the cause of death in the fire. I would only need to sign the document"
"... after that, I decided to leave Ukraine to ensure my safety. I electronically transferred my report to friends in Europe. I asked them to publish it, should I be unable to do so myself."
"... I also appealed to the international community, the UN, OSCE and human rights organizations ... to ensure the safety of my family and relatives in Ukraine ...".
The full original version of the video message from Mr. Iskruk is here:
So what is in this report that has caused experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, such as Sergey Valentinovich Iskruk, to flee Ukraine?
I cannot say that the full text of this expert conclusion was found right away, but after spending some time, we found a link: www.timer-odessa.net, where after the third paragraph from the top, we found the desired line "Download here (a Microsoft Word document)."
Mr. Iskruk’s conclusions, written mostly in Ukrainian, are substantial,136 pages. Thus we did not attempt to translate everything into English. We translated only those pages, in which the conclusions are directly spelled out. These refute all versions of this tragedy which have intentionally been disseminated by so-called "right patriots" from the "Right Sector" and from authorities in Kiev. And are as follows:
Conclusion # 1: during the interrogation of witnesses, forensic medical examinations of bodies of the deceased and the study of samples of materials from the crime scene, it was established that the majority of bodies of Ukrainians found in the Trade Union House fire (with the exception of one) did not suffer damage caused by heat. They were not in the pose caused by reflexive compression of the muscles (the so-called “boxer’s pose") characteristic of those burned in a fire. Here is what one witness, O.G. Berdnik, said in this regard. He is a firefighter who participated in extinguishing the fire at the Trade Union House on February 5, 2014 (page 111 of the expert's conclusion):
As you can see, in answer to the question of the investigator "... and those corpses that you found, was there reflexive muscle contraction?", The witness, who was among the first firemen to enter the building, answers "... you know, it was not observed/noticed there" and "... I did not observe."
On the next page of the report, the same witness Berdnik explains where and in what poses the bodies were found (page 112 of the expert's report):
Answer of witness O.V. Berdnik: "... People sat on the stairs, as if they were pushed, and sat on different staircases." Question "... they did not try to avoid the fire, high temperature, smoke, they did not defend themselves?" The witness replied: "...no, they embraced/hugged each other, just sat." It is not necessary to be a fire expert to understand that people who are covered with flames cannot physically sit still, embracing each other on the stairs or anywhere else in a building enveloped in fire.
The first thing that comes to mind to a non-expert after reading an expert opinion is that people died not from the thermal effects of an open flame, i.e. "burned up" or, in the language of experts, "death from poisoning by products of combustion." Page 130 of the report disspells this version of events:
Literally it says that "... the results of toxicological studies of the blood of the deceased, do not show a large amount of carboxyhemoglobin, under which death from poisoning by combustion products occurs." And further: "... the majority of the dead did not receive fatal injuries due to the fire or its byproducts, heat, smoke"
Conclusion # 2: in other words, defenders of Kulikovo Field, who had been forced into the House of Trade Unions building, were not killed by the flames nor did they suffocate due to smoke.
The second paragraph from the bottom on page 94 of the report specifies the amount of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood due to fire-related death: "... therefore, victims of poisoning due to combustion should have a high percentage of carboxyhemoglobin in their blood. Such percentages should reach 80% or higher. "
If not combustion, then what killed these people? Mr. Iskruk was able to identify the chemical substance that was the cause of death (page 128 of the expert's conclusion):
As you can see, the bottom of this page states:
During the fire there was yellowish smoke exiting from the windows. Chloroform was detected.
On the next page, 129, Mr. Iskruk gives an in-depth description of the chemical and physical properties of chloroform itself and the poisonous substance released by chloroform upon heating.
The poisonous substance is called phosgene. It is a poison used in war that suffocates the victim. There is no antidote. The only protection from phosgene is a gas mask.
There, in the part of an expert description of the symptoms of phosgene poisoning, including: "... there are also cases where the person subject to phosgene poisoning avoids any movement in order to facilitate breathing."
By the way, not only S.V. Iskruk, but also the head of the sector of physical and chemical research of the Odessa scientific-research forensic center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine V.I. Eshtokin, questioned in the case as a witness, said:
"As a result of research, I came to the conclusion that in facilities Nos. 3, 4, there is a trace amount of chloroform. In addition, chloroform may be converted to phosgene, a strong poisoning agent. In the conditions of the fire in the House of Trade Unions ... if chloroform is introduced into open fire in quantities that do not cause interruption of the fire ... the formation of oxidation products such as chloroform-phosgene, diphosgene, etc. is possible "(pages 94 - 95 of the expert conclusions).
To summarize comprehensive studies, carried out pursuant to a Decision of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine from 17.04.2015 about judicial appointments interdepartmental Commission complex fire-technical examination, study of oil products and combustive-lubricating materials submitted to the Department of engineering, economic, commodity research and types of research and assessment activities of the Scientific-research expert-criminalistic center of MIA of Ukraine, expert of Escroc gives an unequivocal answer to the question about the cause of the death of Odessa (item 19 page 134 expert opinion):
"The cause of death was poisoning. The poisoning was not due to fire, namely the result of exposure to an open flame and to combustion byproducts, primarily smoke."
Based on conscientious work and professionalism in a complicated case, it seems appropriate that the Minister of Internal Affairs Avakov and Prosecutor General Lutsenko should praise Mr. Iskruk’s report. Instead Mr. Iskruk was first asked to rewrite the report. When he refused to do this, he and his family faced direct threats, as Mr. Iskruk describes in the video.
The motivation for the raids of "law enforcement officers" from the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and radicals from the "right-wing sector" on Mr. Iskruk are obvious: to evade criminal responsibility and to remove evidence in case someone, someday, seriously engages in determining the cause and effect ties surrounding the presence of right-wingers in the House of Trade Unions, inaction of the police, demonstratively "late" arrival of firefighters, a series of meetings in Odessa, involving the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine A. Parubia on the eve of May 2, 2014 and the activity of foreign citizens at the epicenter of the Odessa events.
Prior to the publication of Mr. Iskruk’s report, many researchers who analyzed this event have already advanced versions of direct participation of citizens of the United States and Israel in the massacre of citizens of Ukraine on May 2, 2014. But now, when it is possible to review documented conclusions of a qualified professional expert, it makes sense to look at the details and to compare the individual episodes of the incident.
We found the primary source of one video, later widely propagated in YouTube and received feedback and comments. For the first time this video was published by journalists Bojan Pancevski and Peter Semler, in the Sunday edition of the British edition of «The Times» - «Sunday Times» 04.05.2014 www.thetimes.co.uk
This entry was made personally by the journalist Peter Semler using the new Google Glass (Google Glasses) device. It produces good quality even when deployed in full-screen mode.
The key feature of these glasses is that their user can record events surreptitiously.
The glasses were used to video-record a group of four foreigners who were heading for the Trade Union House. They were carrying equipment that was highly unusual for foreign visitors: rubber protective gloves on their hands, white bottles with unknown contents and packs of towelettes for removal of chemicals from skin.
This group of four whose physical appearance is Middle Eastern, attracted the attention of a British journalist who was on Greek Square. Video-recording the four, the journalist, Mr. Semler asked where they came from. One of the four, in a blue T-shirt says:
"I'm from Israel."
Semler asks:
"You are from Israel and are you watching all this?"
The Israeli reponds in good English:
“No, I am not watching. We are taking part in this.”
He then explained that he has dual citizenship, US and Israeli, and that he is studying medicine. At 1 min. 13 seconds into the recording, he suddenly realizes that the interlocutor is video-recording him. He asks in a panic: "Are you recording me?!"
After receiving an affirmative answer, the American Israeli is clearly lost, become confused and hurries to close the conversation, saying, in broken English, that he "simply helps people."
The journalist asks one more question:
- So you were trained for this?
The Israeli answers briefly:
- Oh sure. In the army.
Then someone of similar appearance runs up to him. He is wearing protective gloves and he is holding bottles, chemicals and packs of towelettes. The person in the blue t-shirt signals to the journalist to keep quiet, apologize and move along with his group towards the Trade Union House. Later, through the efforts of users of social networks, he was identified as a student of the Odessa National Medical University and a member of the Israel Defense Forces – IDF, Gonen Siboni.
About an hour later, at least 48 Odessa activists, defenders of the Kulikovo Field, were killed. Of these 48 deaths, only one was determined to be due to the effects of fire. As established later by Mr. Iskruk, most of them died due to "... poisoning, which could not be due to the impact of flames or smoke."
To date, Gonen Siboni, for some reason, has not been questioned by Ukrainian law enforcement officials regarding his presence and activities either as a suspect or as a witness. Given the degree of questioning of other eyewitnesses, this omission seems odd.
Here we want to focus attention on those details that have not previously been given much attention, but which, when taken together, clearly indicate the need for investigative actions of Mr. Siboni and of his three companions.
As can be seen on the first of the two combined photos (on the left), his blue t-shirt states that the wearer is fond of chemistry. The t-shirt shows a hand holding a chemical apparatus with the inscription: "I like chemicals". In the second picture (on the right), the same person, G. Siboni is shown as an IDF member. The text for the photo states: "G. Siboni, a soldier in the chemical unit of IDF”.
In the next photo (on the left) one can see a group of youths among the football fans, including sympathizers of the "Right Sector". They are preparing "Molotov cocktails" on Greek Square. They use bare hands since they know that the material will not harm their skin. However a snapshot of the same group Siboni (right) shows that the group of foreigners are wearing white rubber gloves
The presence of protective gloves on the hands of this group indicates one thing - "chemistry lovers" were concerned about dangerous chemical agents being in contact with their skin. Is chloroform such an agent? A specialized site on industrial safety lists generally accepted requirements when working with chloroform (also: trichloromethane, methane trichloride, formyl trichloride).
Chloroform exposure to skin causes redness, pain and dryness. Thus it is necessary to use protective gloves when handling the substance. On the next webpage of the industrial safety website, it is stated that chloroform can poison the body when absorbed through skin (see screen shot below)
Given that their hands were protected, one can reasonably conclude that these "amateur chemists" knew what kind of substance they were handling. On the same site, as well as in Iskruk's report, it is stated that chloroform decomposes to form phosgene when exposed to a hot surface or to an open flame.
Another important detail that is relevant is that fans of the football teams, Odessa "Chernomorets" and the Kharkov "Metalist", many of whom are also activists of "EuroMaidan", gathered on May 2, 2014 for a match between their clubs. Later, some of them were seen inside the House of Trade Unions in gas masks (see below in the photo on the left). The logical question is why they would be carrying gas masks
Determining the type of gas mask is not difficult. These are GP-5 filtering gas masks. These masks protect the respiratory tract, including from phosgene (see description above in the photo to the right). We know there is no antioxidant for counter phosgene. The only defense against it is a gas mask. There still is no answer to the question as to why Euro-Maidans took gas masks GP-5 with them to the match. Was it by chance or did they know in advance that the masks would be needed?
There is no issue regarding obtaining chloroform in Ukraine. It is openly for sale, for example, in Kharkov:
www.himstatus.com.ua or very near Odessa, in Mykolayiv www.antecom.net
These details fit the conclusions and technical details provided by Mr. Iskruk. Combined with his report, they make a argument that four foreign individuals of Middle Eastern appearance and carrying chemicals are hurrying through the Greek Square to the House of Trade Unions with some intent.
Whether they threw bottles of chloroform in the pre-warmed "Molotov cocktails" and in burning tires into the building of the House of Trade Unions themselves, or gave the bottles to specially trained activists, is unclear.
On G. Siboni's Facebook page, there is an avatar, which flaunts a very unusual drawing - www.facebook.com/gonen.siboni/
This is a drawing of a man with a smoky face and injured organs of breathing over the chest in an orange shirt. The question then is: What is this drawing supposed to symbolize and to whom is it addressed? It shows edematous lungs with fluid-filled alveoli. This is a characteristic sign of damage from a poisonous substance.
Picture - www.facebook.com
Behind the scenes
Meanwhile, the inquiry has produced evidence that deserves much more attention.
For example, Mr. Iskruk thoroughly reviewed the actions of the staff of the Emergency Control Department for fire fighting. Iskruk proved that the first fire brigade unit was sent to the Kulikovo Field 21 minutes after receiving a report of a fire in the Trade Unions' House. Given the severity of the fire additional manpower and equipment were needed, but these were sent 11 minutes after main brigade arrived.
Iskruk painstakingly lists the violations of job responsibilities by the managers of the SDS, arriving at the conclusion that an appropriate response would have avoided this large number of casualties. However, the analysis of this part of the inquiry, perhaps, deserves separate consideration.
There is testimony from the chief of the guard of the state fire and rescue unit No. 2, Serbul, who was among the first employees of the Emergency Service to arrive at the fire. In particular, he and others state: upon their arrival, the activists of the "EuroMaidan" gathered outside the building preventing the firefighters from carrying out their business. They did not admit employees to the building and even cut the fire hose.
In addition, the same Serbul testifies that the Molotov cocktails continued to be thrown into the building after the fire was extinguished.
This contradicts the generally accepted version amongst supporters of the "EuroMaidan" that the fire in the House of Trade Unions was accidental, and that after it began, activists realized what was happening, so they stopped attacking the building and began helping firefighters to save people.
However, at the same time, the firefighter Berdnik says that he and his colleagues did not face resistance, and that the activists, on the contrary, helped them fight the fire and save people. There is no contradiction in the testimony: among the several thousand people gathered on Kulikovo Field on May 2, 2014, there could well be those who really wished the deaths in the building, as well as those who sincerely tried to save them.
There is important evidence concerning the death of Irina Yakovenko, whose body was found on the desk of one of the offices. Because of the odd positioning the body, many immediately felt that she had been killed, likely by strangulation. The official version refutes this. According to it, Yakovenko was killed not by someone's hands, but by smoke and fire. However, evidence from Mr. Iskruk's inquiry confirm the cause of the murder. In the words of Serbul, room No. 330, in which Yakovenko's body was found, had almost no evidence of smoke and lacked any trace of fire. In that room, Serbul saw obvious signs of a struggle: items scattered about. "The woman lay there with no sign of burns. No evidence of smoke. Then what? " Asks the expert. "It turns out that she was killed," the fireman states.
From the above: a video recorded by eyewitnesses to the tragedy in Odessa on May 2, 2014 shows that neo-Nazis threw Molotov cocktails into the burning building, finished people off jumping out of it, photos of people who were obviously not burned by fire, signs of chemical poisoning, police, obstructing the work of firefighters, the prosecution of Mr. Iskruk by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine speaks of a pre-planned action by the authorities of Ukraine.
The current leadership of Ukraine deliberately planned and conducted this tragedy on May 2 in Odessa with the aim of intimidating the population in a region that is pro-Russian.
Through mass public executions, burning of entire villages, German troops during the Second World War tried to suppress resistance from the population in the occupied territories in Eastern Europe. This is a characteristic tactic of fascism, including modern neo-Nazism in Ukraine. In modern Ukraine neo-Nazism and fascism have become the state ideology.
Download the original conclusion of the forensic medical examiner