Thousands of pro-Russian activists this afternoon stormed the police station in the Black Sea port, where dozes of people were killed in riots two days ago.Protesters forced open the gate to the complex and smashed windows, fighting police in riot gear who seemed reluctant to strike back against their countrymen.The prisoners released this afternoon were those held during fierce clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Kiev groups which led to 47 deaths on Friday night.The trouble in hitherto peaceful Odessa, where many citizens speak Russian, comes as forces loyal to the new government in Kiev carry out a major offensive against separatists who have seized control of towns and cities in the east of the country.Last night the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘outraged’ by the violence in Ukraine and is under huge pressure to send in tanks as the country lurches towards civil war, the Kremlin warned last night.Amid the deepening violence and bloodshed, Moscow flexed its muscles by demanding that presidential elections scheduled for May 25 be postponed.The government in Kiev declared two days of mourning for Ukrainian troops killed in the eastern city of Slaviansk and for victims of protests in Odessa – including pro-Russian activists killed in attacks by Ukrainian extremist groups.Western countries blame Moscow for inciting the mayhem now raging across Ukraine, and US President Barack Obama has threatened a new round of sanctions against Russia.But a senior Russian diplomat, UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, said yesterday that the carnage in Odessa – a Ukrainian city far from the eastern areas held  by rebels – was ‘reminiscent of the crimes of the Nazis from whom the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists derive their ideological inspiration’.Ukrainian security officials accused close aides of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, now exiled in Russia, of financing the violence in Odessa on Friday, which led to the deaths of 46 people in a burning building.  Another 200 were injured in the blaze, which is believed to have been started by petrol bombs thrown by demonstrators.Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is standing in the presidential election, blamed Russian intelligence agencies for the unrest, and said Mr Putin was trying to destabilise her country.In Moscow, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had received ‘thousands’ of demands to intervene in Ukraine.‘People are calling in despair, asking for help,’ he said. ‘The overwhelming majority demand Russian help. All these calls are reported to Vladimir Putin.’Demanding the presidential election be shelved, Mr Peskov said that after Kiev’s ‘criminal confrontation with its own people’, Russians ‘do not understand what kind of elections Kiev, European countries and Washington are talking about’.More than 60,000 Russian troops have been moved to the border with Ukraine and the newly annexed Crimea.After street clashes in Odessa on Friday, a Ukrainian mob overran and set fire to a camp where pro-Moscow supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to take refuge in a trade union building which was then set ablaze. Many of those trapped inside the burning offices were killed by smoke and fumes, according to harrowing accounts yesterday.Local journalist Oleg Konstantinov, who suffered gunshot wounds in the melee, said: ‘I was hit in the arm, then I started crawling, and then got hit in the back and leg.’A female doctor who escaped the burning building said: ‘I nearly suffocated. There was no place to escape, people were cornered. People close to me were moaning, crying and calling their relatives, begging them to call the fire brigade.’Eventually she and others escaped down a rope from a window, but others fell and their bodies were later found in the street. ‘For the first time in my life I want to leave Odessa and Ukraine forever,’ the doctor added.One positive sign yesterday was the release of seven international military observers working for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The group had been held for a week and were accused of being Nato spies.In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said their release showed the ‘bravery and humanism’ of the defenders  of Slaviansk.The ministry said people there had shown concern for the security of foreign citizens, despite their town coming under ‘direct and unmotivated’ attack.(dailymail.co.uk)BakuDaily.Az