Unrest in Ukraine spread to the south as thousands of pro-Russian protesters attacked Odessa´s police headquarters after a fire killed dozens of their comrades, Kiev charged the violence was a Russian plot to “destroy” the country.
Increasing tension in the southern port city threatened a new front in the Ukrainian government´s battle against pro-Moscow militants, with an expanded military operation under way in the east against gunmen holding more than a dozen towns.
A blaze at a trade union building in Odessa Friday left 42 people dead most of them pro-Russian militants
Ukraine´s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was in Odessa to observe mourning for the 42 dead, accused Russia of executing a plan “to destroy Ukraine and its statehood”.