Hal Foster

Special for USA TODAY

ODESSA, Ukraine – When I arrived at the building where 38 pro-Russian activists died in a fire May 2, I didn't realize I was coming at a time when family and friends were holding a memorial observance for the victims.

About 200 people were talking in small clumps, bowing their heads in prayer at wreaths honoring the dead or sampling food on tables in front of the Soviet-era Trade Union building. The scene was where pro-Ukrainian activists had chased an outnumbered pro-Russian group six weeks before, and someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail, setting the structure ablaze.

My translator, Irina Taravskaya, said I had come upon a second commemoration of the dead.

I had wanted to see the scene so I could describe it if it figured in the news again. I asked Irina to find people who would talk about what happened May 2.

She chose a man about 60 and a woman about 50 who were standing apart from the rest of the crowd at a metal barricade the city had erected to seal off the damaged building.

Pro-Ukrainians and pro-Russians each say the other side started the clash that led to 46 deaths altogether – eight outside the Trade Union building.

Irina asked the man and woman if they would talk with an American journalist. The man nodded calmly, but the woman's jaw tightened and I could see fire in her eyes.

"The fascists in Kiev are to blame for this," the man said, using Russian President Vladimir Putin's term for the pro-European Union protesters who ousted the Russia-leaning Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich in February.

"It isn't just the fascists in Kiev. America is to blame for this, too -- Obama," the woman said, looking at me with contempt. "The United States wants to control Ukraine."

The two refused to give their names, apparently out of fear of retribution for their remarks.

The woman's vehemence stunned me. I've been coming to Ukraine for 12 years as a journalist, journalism consultant and professor, and I'd never encountered anti-Americanism.

The woman raised her voice almost to a shout, attracting others, who chimed in with the same message about the United States being behind Ukraine's internal conflict.

Both police and military troops – some wearing special-forces-type purple berets – were out in force to prevent trouble, and two uniformed police sidled over to listen. I decided to leave for a while.

I returned two hours later, when the crowd had thinned. That was when I met a woman about 60 who was as hostile as the first had been.

Aware that many in the West believe Putin orchestrated Ukraine's internal strife, she snarled that the Russian leader wasn't to blame.

"This was the hand of your president," said the woman, who also was worried about reprisals and would give only her last name of Kravchenkova.

Tell Obama that Ukraine "is not Iraq or Yugoslavia," she said, referring to countries where the U.S. military intervened. "Our children are dying."

Altogether, I talked with eight people at the scene. Seven of the eight shared the view that the United States was stoking the conflict. The exception was a videographer hoping for juicy footage he could sell. He offered neither a pro-government nor pro-separatist view.

I've met hundreds of Russia-leaning Ukrainians over the past 12 years. A handful seemed wary because I was American, but most were friendly. I had never encountered outright hostility until this day.

What happened at the Trade Union building both sobered and saddened me.

I walked away concluding that the United States has a lot of work to do to win the hearts and minds of the millions of Ukraine's Russia-leaning population.

Foster is a special correspondent for USA TODAY based in Ukraine