Odessa (Ukraine) (AFP) - The deaths of 42 people in Odessa that greatly added to the toll of Ukraine's crisis had their roots not only in the country's worsening political confrontation but also rampant football hooliganism.

The clashes that culminated in a horrific inferno of a trade union building that killed 38 people -- most of them pro-Russian activists -- began Friday with what was meant to be a peaceful march to a football stadium for a 5 p.m. match.

Supporters of Odessa's home team, the Chornomorets, joined up with those of the visiting Metalist side, from Ukraine's northeast city of Kharkiv, to head to the game together.

Originally there were no plans to have the 1,500-strong march turn into what it became: a rally calling for Ukrainian unity. But that's what happened.

"It was some of the young supporters -- and in this country it's the young who are naturally more in favour of a united Ukraine than backing Russia," said Natalia Petropavlovska, a leader of the local pro-Maidan movement behind the protests that drove out Ukraine's previous Kremlin-friendly government.

The march, draped in the yellow and blue of both Ukraine's national flag and the club colors of Metalist, was set upon by several hundred pro-Russian thugs obviously prepared for violence, some armed and wearing ski masks and helmets, witnesses said.

In the melee that ensued, at least four people died from gunshots and a dozen people were wounded.

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Pro-Ukrainian football fans clash with pro-Russian activists prior to a Ukrainian Premier League gam …

- Pro-Russian attack a 'big mistake' -

Oleg Konstantinov was among the injured taken to the city's Jewish Hospital, where he was treated for bullet wounds to his arm and leg.

"When the shooting started, I said that maybe there were guns because the police had arrived," he said. "I was wounded in the arm, and when my friends were getting me out I was again wounded in the arm and in the leg."

An eyewitness, a 40-year-old man who gave only his first name, Bogdan, said: "The two groups of fans were marching in the city when there was shooting and also some homemade grenades thrown.

"The police did nothing. But the fans fought back. There were more of them than the attackers, and they are no strangers to brawls."

Petropavlovska said that, although the pro-Russians were armed, "they made a big mistake taking on the supporters."

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A pro-Russian activist lays flowers and candles at the burned trade union building in Odessa on May …

"They were a big crowd and knew how to handle themselves. Not only were they not afraid of the weapons, but they became enraged when they were shot at and beaten," she said.

News of the clash spread nearly instantly by mobile telephone and social networks, bringing more football fans to the scene.

"I was watching the match and we all noticed that at half-time the stands were emptying," said one man who was in the stadium. "They had gone to fight."

After the street clash subsided, the growing crowd of supporters turned to a tent camp the pro-Russian activists had been staying in since mid-March, on a big square in front of a trade union building.

"It was a furious crowd thirsting for vengeance that descended on Kulikove Pole place. They wanted to do away with the pro-Russian camp," Petropavlovska said. "They set about destroying it, setting it on fire."

The outnumbered pro-Russians "could have just left -- they knew the angry crowd was coming, there was two hours between the attack on the march and the arrival of the supporters and our people," she said.

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Pro-Ukrainian football fans clash with pro-Russian activists prior to a Ukrainian Premier League gam …

"But instead of that, they chose to take cover in the trade union building."

The protest leader admitted that Molotov cocktails were then thrown at the imposing stone building, as many videos posted online showed.

But the pro-Russians inside were also throwing masonry and shooting at the crowd from the roof, she said. Ukraine's government confirmed that.

It will probably never be established with certainty which side started the killer blaze that gutted the building, trapping the pro-Russians in a chaos of flames and choking smoke.

But many who witnessed the tragedy said firemen reacted much too slowly to save those inside.

"It's horrible. We never wanted that to happen. We are sorry these deaths happened," said Petropavlovska.

"Youths had been manipulated. I myself called the firefighters many times, and I really can't understand even now why they took so long to respond."

Ukraine declared two days of mourning in the wake of the tragedy.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited the grief-stricken Black Sea port city of one million inhabitants to show government's shock and solidarity.

In an interview with the BBC, Yatsenyuk vowed a "full, comprehensive and independent investigation" into the deadly events.

He also said that, while pro-Russian activists provoked the violence, a probe had been started against every Odessa police officer for their service's "inefficient" response as the rioting got out of hand.

"They violated the law," he said.

The clash that claimed 42 lives in the Ukrainian city began with a peaceful march to a soccer stadium.
Pro-Russians' miscalculation

NEW DELHI (AP) — A passenger train derailed in western India on Sunday, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 100, police said.

The engine and four of the 20 coaches jumped the tracks near Roha station, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Mumbai, said police officer Ankush Shinde.

The rescuers used gas cutters to open the derailed coaches to reach those trapped inside. Big cranes were deployed to remove these coaches from the rail track, Shinde said.

Two of the derailed coaches tilted on one side and one overturned, said railway spokesman Anil Kumar Saxena.

The rescue operation was continuing and the death toll was expected to rise, Shinde said.

Saxena said that 123 injured passengers, some of them in serious condition, were taken to a hospital.

The cause of the derailment was not immediately known. Rail authorities ordered an investigation into the accident, Saxena said.

Train movement in the area was suspended as the derailed coaches and the rescue operation blocked an adjacent track as well.

Railway accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's largest train networks and serves 20 million passengers a day. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

Deadly passenger train derailment in India

At least 19 people were killed and more than 100 were hurt in the accident south of Mumbai.
Engine, coaches jump the tracks

ODESSA, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of pro-Russian demonstrators stormed police headquarters in Odessa on Sunday and won the release of 67 people detained after deadly clashes in the Ukrainian port city.

More than 40 people died in the riots two days earlier, some from gunshot wounds, but most in a horrific fire that tore through a trade union building.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who hinted strongly that he saw Moscow's hand in the unrest spreading through southeastern Ukraine, visited Odessa on Sunday to try to defuse the mounting tensions.

Odessa is the major city between the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in March, and the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester, where Russia has a military peacekeeping contingent.

Concerns are mounting that Russia ultimately aims to take control of a huge swath of Ukraine from Trans-Dniester to the east. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who calls the area historically Russian lands, has said he doesn't want to send in troops but will if necessary.

Yatsenyuk said police were being investigated for their failure to maintain order and he had charged prosecutors with "finding all instigators, all organizers and all those that under Russian leadership began a deadly attack on Ukraine and Odessa."

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An Orthodox priest, right, blesses a pro-Russian activist as people gather to honor the memory of fa …

Earlier in the day, hundreds of pro-Russian demonstrators gathered in front of the scorched trade union building to honor those who died in Friday's blaze. Some draped a large Russian tricolor flag on the face of the building.

By mid-afternoon, a group of several hundred people marched to the police station to demand the release of fellow activists jailed over their involvement in the unrest. They attacked security surveillance cameras and smashed windows. Shortly after some of them managed to break into an inner courtyard, police yielded to the crowd's demands and released the prisoners.

As detainees emerged from the police station, the crowd cheered.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that 67 activists had been released. It was not immediately clear whether others were still being held.

Yatsenyuk's visit came as Ukrainian authorities renewed their push to quell a pro-Russian insurgency in the east. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement on his Facebook page that an "antiterrorist operation" was being executed in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the latest flashpoint for unrest.

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A child walks carrying a shield back dropped by police troops guarding the burnt trade union buildin …

"The operation was carried out by fighters of the National Guard and the armed forces. The active phase resumed at dawn. We will not stop," Avakov wrote.

The city saw a standoff Saturday that culminated in pro-Russian insurgents setting buses alight to ward off attacks. Russian state television has reported 10 deaths, including two among government forces, during clashes in Kramatorsk so far. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

By midday Sunday, however, there was little sign of movement, from either government or insurgents on the ground. The burned-out shells of trolleybuses and a minibus lay in the road untouched.

At least 12 government armored personnel carriers were spotted driving through the town Saturday, although they appeared to have returned to their base at a military airfield on the edge of the city by day's end.

Opposing sides of the Ukraine conflict have traded bitter recriminations over the mass deaths that followed hours of bloody rioting on Friday in Odessa.

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A man gets a kiss from a supporter, left, after being released from a local police station which was …

The clash began with street fighting in which at least three people were reported killed by gunfire, then turned into a grisly conflagration when government opponents took refuge in a trade union building that caught fire as opposing sides hurled Molotov cocktails at one another.

The city's police chief, Petr Lutsyuk, on Saturday issued a statement calling for calm in the city of about 1 million, but hours later he was fired by the interior minister.

The fate of those killed in the union building has already become a rallying cause for resistance to the authorities by pro-Russians in the east. In a position eagerly promoted by the Kremlin, critics of the government have blamed those deaths on radical ultranationalists abetted by the government.

Pro-unity activists have argued, meanwhile, that their rally came under assault, including from attackers bearing firearms.

Efforts to counteract the insurgency have focused mostly on Slovyansk, where the Ukrainian authorities are seeking to form a security cordon around the eastern city.

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A man is greeted by supporters after being released from a local police station which was stormed by …

It is difficult to establish what degree of popular support the gunmen in effective control of Slovyansk truly enjoy. The insurgency has proven hostile to supporters of the interim government that came to power in February after the toppling of Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych.

European military observers who were held more than a week by insurgents in Slovyansk walked free Saturday. But the city's self-declared "people's mayor" — Vyacheslav Ponomarev — has boasted that he holds an unspecified number of other captives. The prisoners are believed to include Ukrainian journalists, activists and politicians. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly claimed victories in capturing checkpoints surrounding Slovyansk, although such boasts have often proven overstated.

Government buildings have been seized by pro-Russian forces in more than a dozen or so cities and town across eastern Ukraine.

Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said late Saturday that security sweeps would be extended beyond Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Traffic around the Donetsk region, where the insurgency is strongest, has been impeded by a proliferation of barricades guarded by men armed with sticks, automatic rifles and handguns.

The goals of the eastern pro-Russian insurgency are ostensibly geared toward pushing for broad powers of autonomy. Russia, which the international community has accused of promoting the unrest, has vociferously condemned recent Ukrainian security operations in the east.

The self-styled Donetsk People's Republic says it plans to hold a referendum on autonomy by May 11, but with less than a week remaining, little visible effort has been to make that vote happen.

___

Leonard reported from Donetsk, Ukraine.

Odessa police free 67 detained in deadly clashes

The activists are released after hundreds of pro-Russian demonstrators storm the headquarters.
Ukraine tries to defuse tensions

As violence worsened in Ukraine over the weekend, U.S. lawmakers appeared on the Sunday talk shows to call for new and harsher sanctions on Russia. Many U.S. officials believe the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin is orchestrating the widespread takeover of government buildings in east Ukraine by ethnic Russians who want to see their part of the country annexed by Russia.

Russia, which annexed the Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula two months ago after widespread protests reportedly backed by Russian agents, currently has tens of thousands of troops massed on the Ukrainian border.

Related: If Russia Goes Over the Economic Cliff, It Won’t Go Alone

Over the weekend, the violence moved from the eastern part of the country to the southwestern port city of Odessa, where more than 40 people, mostly pro-Russian separatists were killed on Friday. Many of the fatalities were pro-Russian forces who burned to death after a building in which they were taking refuge was set on fire.

On Sunday, pro-Russian demonstrators in Odessa stormed police headquarters, apparently with the cooperation of a significant part of the police force, and freed dozens of their comrades who had been arrested for participating in the violence of the previous few days.

The Obama administration last week took a hard line on the issue of Russian interference in Ukraine, but put most of the emphasis on warning Russia not to interfere in parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month, or risk more severe sanctions than those already imposed on the country by the U.S. and European allies.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said waiting to see if the elections were hindered before introducing new sanctions was pointless.

Related: Does Russia Have the Ukraine Crisis Under Control?

“They need to be imposed now,” she said. “The bottom line is if we wait until the elections it’ll be too late at that point. We already see the playbook of what happened in Crimea happening in eastern Ukraine and it’s time to impose tougher sector sanctions and to provide support for the Ukrainian military.”

Hoping that the limited sanctions imposed so far will deter Putin, she said, ignores reality. “At this point, Russia is not getting the message,” she said. The Russians are ignoring an agreement signed in Geneva two weeks ago that was designed to help end the crisis peacefully. “You’ve got Russian agents in Ukraine fomenting unrest and causing all the violence and creating a situation right now that warrants tougher sanctions from this administration.”

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was less demanding of urgent action, but seemed equally convinced that harsh sanctions were necessary.

“Regrettably I think they are going to be necessary and we’ve got to inflict a heavy penalty on Russia for this kind of violation of its neighbor’s sovereignty,” he said.

Related: The Kerry Quote that Really Matters Isn’t About Israel

The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, and said that the demonstrations erupting across the country are not representative of the feeling of the general public.

Pyatt had visited Odessa not long before the violence on Friday. “There’s nothing that I heard or saw while in that city which would explain what transpired Friday night. It suggests that somebody wanted this violence to explode the way it did and at this point the whole country is trying to figure out what happened, how to pull together, and how to make sure that those who are trying to divide the country do not succeed.”

Asked if he believes Russia was behind the troubles in Odessa, Pyatt stopped short of a direct accusation.

“We certainly believe that Russia is exercising influence inside eastern Ukraine. We don’t have evidence of a Russian role in the tragedy that transpired on Friday,” he said.

Related: Q&A What Those Sanctions on Russia Really Do

He noted that Russia played a role in negotiating the release of seven observers from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development who had been taken captive by pro-Russia separatists in the eastern city of Slovyansk. “Release of prisoners demonstrates that Russia has influence and can play a constructive role when it wishes to do so.”

Also on CNN, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said that Russian propaganda had been extremely effective in scaring ethnic Russians in Ukraine, and said the response by the U.S. has, at this point, been too weak to deter Putin.

“Nothing is going to stop him,” Johnson said. “I think it’s that kind of weakness that has given Vladimir Putin the signal that he can do these kind of things with impunity.”

Interestingly, with Ukraine plummeting toward what looks increasingly like civil war, Fox and CNN were the only networks to focus major segments on the crisis there. ABC, CBS, and NBC elected to spend the majority of their time on the racist statements of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, which took place Saturday night in Washington.