Mother Watched Helplessly Knowing Her Son Was Inside Burning Odessa Building

Vadim Papura was killed with dozens of other protestors in a fire.

ByABC News
May 6, 2014, 2:02 PM

May 6, 2014 -- The funeral for 17-year-old Vadim Papura, who was killed in Odessa on May 2 after fighting on behalf of pro-Russian militants against a pro-Ukrainian crowd, was held today as Ukraine moves closer to the brink of civil war.

His mother, Fatima Papura, said she watched helplessly as her son died.

"We came here to try to get him out of the building, but we couldn't get anybody to stop them," she told ABC News.

Now, she not only mourns for her loss, but for the violence that has erupted throughout Ukraine.

Papura jumped from the burning Odessa Trade Union building to escape the fire. He was one of 31 people who died as the result of the fire.

Odessa, a port on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, had largely been free of the unrest that has gripped country over the past few weeks.