Fire in the Russian Cultural Center in Lvov: Arson two days after the tragedy in Odessa (PHOTO)
Lvov - Kiev, May 07 (Navigator, Viktor Korneev) - The fire in the building of the Russian Cultural Center in Lvov, which happened on the May holidays shortly after the tragedy in Odessa, was most likely the result of deliberate arson. The employees of the institution are inclined towards this version. Among them is the artistic director of the center, Igor Korchevsky. According to him, preliminary police conclusions that the cause of the fire was a short circuit in the electrical wiring were not confirmed.
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Korchevsky told Navigator that over the past twenty years there have been about forty attacks on the Russian Cultural Center in Lviv. They tried to blow up the building of the center, fired at it, threw Molotov cocktails, knocked out windows and doors, “decorated” the walls with offensive inscriptions calling to kill Russians.
A fire in the Russian Cultural Center in Lvov occurred in the early morning of May 4, shortly after the tragic events in Odessa. When the fire was extinguished and the scene was inspected, law enforcement officials said that the fire apparently occurred due to an electrical short circuit. This allegedly happened in the wooden ceiling between the second floor and the attic of the building. Meanwhile, criminal proceedings on this fact were initiated under Article 194 (deliberate destruction or damage to property) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. As part of the pre-trial investigation, a number of examinations were ordered.
...I'm heading to the fire site. Inside the building there are blackened walls and a strong burning smell. The most unsightly picture I see is in the library. The burnt-out ceiling gapes with large black holes, there is soot, dirt, and piles of wet books on the floor.
The workers of the center vied with each other to say that about 30 meters of the roof was damaged, which, due to lack of funds for repairs, had to be temporarily covered with a tarpaulin, that the attic was almost completely burned out, and that during the fire extinguishing, hundreds of books that the Russian community had been collecting for years were flooded with water. These are Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet classics, educational literature, historical and children's literature.
Most of all, people are concerned about the question of whether the real cause of the fire will be established. Almost everyone talks about deliberate arson.
“The police, examining the scene of the incident, did not find any traces of entry into the premises through windows and doors. – says the artistic director of the center Igor Korchevsky. “Also, there were no traces of deliberate arson. But after the wiring was examined, preliminary conclusions arose about a short circuit above the library. This was explained by the fact that the premises were old, everything was old. Today, after an examination, there is a conclusion that the electrical wiring has nothing to do with it. That is, the fire occurred for a different reason. I can’t say what version the law enforcement authorities will begin to develop after this. It is possible that the situation can be clarified by recordings from CCTV cameras, which we submitted for police examination (our building is equipped with four video cameras). If we talk about personal opinion, it coincides with the belief of the majority of our employees. Considering the number of attacks on the center, I believe that the organization’s building was most likely deliberately set on fire. The person (or persons) who committed this crime could have entered the attic through the attic hinged hatch, or could have simply thrown something into the open hatch that could cause a fire.
According to Igor Korchevsky, over the past twenty years there have been about forty attacks on the Russian Cultural Center in Lviv. They tried to blow up and destroy the building of the center; they fired at it several times, threw Molotov cocktails at it, knocked out windows, shop windows, doors dozens of times, doused it with paint, painted it with swastikas, Russophobic and anti-Semitic slogans.
“There was even a case when, during an attack on the Russian Cultural Center, children who were studying in a ballet studio were almost injured. - says Igor Korchevsky. - In broad daylight, unknown criminals threw three Molotov cocktails at the windows of the assembly hall where they were. Fortunately, only one of them caught fire - the one that did not hit the window, but broke on the facade. Neither this nor all the other attacks on the center were investigated, their perpetrators and masterminds were not found or punished.”
Navigator Help: The Russian Cultural Center is located in Lviv near the city center - on Korolenko Street, 1-a, a few hundred meters from the regional council and the regional state administration.
The modest and unsightly building in which the center is located was built in 1928. It was handed over to the Russian community 24 years ago - in an extremely neglected and dilapidated state, it was not possible to hold any cultural or public events there. The renovation of the premises lasted almost six years, mainly by members of the Russian community. Before the fire, the premises of the Russian Cultural Center housed women's and military history clubs, the Russian Youth Center, the Cossack community, the Leningrad community, associations of journalists, writers, artists, an art song club, a dance studio, a theater, and a library.
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