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Pro-Russian rebels find MH17 black boxes as bodies loaded onto trains from crash site
Removal of 196 corpses follows Kiev’s accusations that Russia and pro-Moscow rebels destroyed evidence to cover up their guilt in shooting down of Malaysian airliner
A still image from video shows a rescue worker carrying a flight data recorder at the crash site. Photo: Reuters
A separatist leader said on Sunday that pro-Russian rebels were keeping what they presumed were the black boxes from the downed Malaysian airliner in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
“Some items, presumably the black boxes, were found, and they have been delivered to Donetsk and they are under our control,” Aleksander Borodai, prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, said.
Borodai said the rebels would need experts to confirm that they were the plane’s flight recorders.
“There are no specialists among us who could pinpoint the look of the black boxes, but we brought to Donetsk some technical items which could be the black boxes of the airliner.”
Borodai added that the items would be handed over to “international experts if they arrive”.
Armed rebels earlier forced emergency workers to hand over all 196 bodies recovered from the crash site and then loaded them onto refrigerated trains bound for a rebel-held area.
At the crash site on Sunday morning, Associated Press journalists saw no bodies and no armed rebels. Emergency workers were searching the sprawling fields only for body parts.
Nataliya Khuruzhaya, a duty officer at the train station in Torez, 15km from the crash site, said she saw emergency workers loading bodies into five sealed, refrigerated train cars.
A pro-Russia separatist stands near a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Photo: Reuters
She said the train was scheduled to head to the town of Ilovaysk, 35km further east toward the Russian border, but no instructions had been given about when it would leave or any possible destinations beyond Ilovaysk.
Russian news agencies said the bodies were heading to the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Ukrainian officials say they expect to have the bodies eventually delivered to the government-held city of Kharkiv, but it’s unclear if the rebels will agree to do so.
Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels on Saturday of destroying evidence to cover up their guilt in the shooting down of the jet.
As militants kept international monitors away from wreckage, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the rebels to cooperate and insisted that a UN-mandated investigation must not leap to conclusions. Moscow denies involvement and has pointed a finger at Kiev’s military.
The UN Security Council was considering a draft resolution to condemn the attack, demand armed groups allow access to the crash site and call on states in the region to cooperate with an international investigation.
Australia – which lost 28 citizens – circulated a draft text, seen by Reuters, to the 15-member Security Council late on Saturday and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it could be put to a vote as early as Monday.
The Netherlands, whose citizens made up most of the 298 aboard MH17 from Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lumpur, said it was “furious” about the manhandling of corpses strewn for miles over open country and asked Ukraine’s president for help to bring “our people” home.
Flowers laid at the scene of the crash. Photo: AFP
US President Barack Obama said the loss of the Malaysia Airlines flight showed it was time to end the Ukraine conflict and Germany called it Moscow’s last chance to cooperate.
European powers seemed to swing behind Washington’s belief that Russia’s separatist allies were to blame. That might speed new trade sanctions on Moscow, without waiting for definitive proof.
“He has one last chance to show he means to help,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after a telephone call to Putin.
Britain, which lost 10 citizens, said further sanctions were available for use against Russia. Prime Minister David Cameron, writing in The Sunday Times, said European countries should make their power count. “Yet we sometimes behave as if we need Russia more than Russia needs us.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful figure in the EU, spoke to Putin on Saturday, urging his cooperation. Merkel’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper: “Moscow may have a last chance now to show that it really is seriously interested in a solution.”
“Now is the moment for everyone to stop and think to themselves what might happen if we don’t stop the escalation.”
Germany, reliant like other EU states on Russian energy and more engaged in Russian trade than the United States, has been reluctant to escalate a confrontation with Moscow that has revived memories of the cold war. But with military action not seen as an option, economic leverage is a vital instrument.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian emergency services says separatist rebels have taken away all the 196 bodies that workers had recovered from the crash site. Photo: Reuters
Russia said on Saturday it was retaliating against sanctions imposed by the United States last week, before the air disaster, by barring entry to unidentified Americans and warned of a “boomerang effect” on US business. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed in a phone call to try to get both sides in Ukraine to reach a consensus on peace, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
The US State Department, however, put the onus on Russia, saying Kerry urged Russia to take “immediate and clear actions to reduce tensions in Ukraine”.
Driving home its assertion that the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian SA-11 radar-guided missile, Ukraine’s Western-backed government said it had “compelling evidence” the battery was not just brought in from Russia but manned by three Russian citizens who had now taken the truck-mounted system back over the border.
The prime minister, denying Russian suggestions that Kiev’s forces had fired a missile, said only a “very professional” crew could have brought down the speeding jetliner from 33,000 feet – not “drunken gorillas” among the ill-trained insurgents who want the Russian-speaking east to be annexed by Moscow.
The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence assessments indicated that Moscow likely provided rebels with sophisticated anti-aircraft systems in recent days.
A Malaysia Airlines employee sits behind a closed ticket counter at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday. Photo: AFP
The Journal cited US officials as saying they now suspect that Russia supplied the rebels with multiple SA-11 systems by smuggling them in with other equipment, including tanks.
Fighting flared in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. The government said it was pressing its offensive in the east.
Observers from Europe’s OSCE security agency visited part of the crash site near the village of Hrabove for a second day on Saturday and again found their access hampered by armed men from the forces of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk. An OSCE official said, however, they saw more than on Friday.
At one point, a Reuters correspondent heard a senior rebel tell the OSCE delegation they could not approach the wreckage and would simply be informed in due course of an investigation conducted by the separatists. However, fighters later let them visit an area where one of the airliner’s two engines lay.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks to the media on Sunday. Australia – which lost 28 citizens – circulated a draft text to the UN Security Council demanding access to the crash site.
“The terrorists, with the help of Russia, are trying to destroy evidence of international crimes,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement in which it accused people with “strong Russian accents” of threatening to conduct autopsies.
Ukraine’s prime minister said armed men had barred government experts from collecting evidence.
Kerry told Lavrov the United States was “very concerned” over reports that the remains of victims and debris had been removed or tampered with, the State Department said. He said Washington was also concerned over denial of “proper access” for international investigators and OSCE monitors.
“This is unacceptable and an affront to all those who lost loved ones and to the dignity the victims deserve,” Kerry’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement. “We urge Russia to honour its commitments and to publicly call on the separatists to do the same.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged the United Nations to label rebels fighting his forces in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as belonging to “terrorist organisations”.
In the regional capital Donetsk, the prime minister of the separatist authorities said that Kiev was holding up the arrival of international experts whose mission to investigate the cause – and potentially blame - for the disaster was authorised on Friday by the UN Security Council.
Contrary to earlier statements by the rebels, Alexander Borodai said they had not found the black box flight recorders. He said rebels were avoiding disturbing the area.
“There’s a grandmother. A body landed right in her bed. She says ‘please take this body away’. But we cannot tamper with the site,” Borodai said. “Bodies of innocent people are lying out in the heat. We reserve the right, if the delay continues ... to begin the process of taking away the bodies. We ask the Russian Federation to help us with this problem and send their experts.”
At Hrabove, one armed man from the separatist forces said that bodies had already been taken away in trucks. Another said people had looted valuables immediately after the crash. But fighters and local people say they have been doing their best to collect evidence and preserve human remains.
Malaysia, whose national airline has been battered by its second major disaster this year, said it was “inhumane” to bar access to the site around the village of Hrabove, but said Russia was doing its “level best” to help.
A team of Malaysian experts flew in to Kiev on Saturday and experts from Interpol are due there on Sunday to help with the identification of victims. Dutch, US and other specialists are being lined up to help in the investigation.
“Any actions that prevent us from learning the truth about what happened to MH17 cannot be tolerated,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Saturday before leaving for Kiev. “Failure to stop such interference would be a betrayal of the lives that were lost.”
The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner follows the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370 in March with 239 passengers and crew.
The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula a month later.
80 children were on board flight MH17, UN says, as rebels 'attempt to destroy crash evidence'
Missile that killed 298 people on Malaysian airliner fired by Russian team, says Kiev
The body of a victim is carried away from the crash site. Photo: AFP
Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels on Saturday of destroying evidence to cover up their guilt in the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner that has accelerated a showdown between the Kremlin and Western powers.
As militants kept international monitors away from wreckage and scores of bodies festered for a third day, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the rebels to cooperate and insisted that a U.N.-mandated investigation must not leap to conclusions. Moscow denies involvement and has pointed a finger at Kiev’s military.
The Dutch government, whose citizens made up most of the 298 aboard MH17 from Amsterdam, said it was “furious” at the manhandling of corpses strewn for miles over open country and asked Ukraine’s president for help to bring “our people” home.
After US President Barack Obama said the loss of the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight showed it was time to end the conflict, Germany called it Moscow’s last chance to cooperate.
Click here to see which aircraft pass over Ukraine's war zone when flying between western Europe and Hong Kong
European powers seemed to swing behind Washington’s belief Russia’s separatist allies were to blame. That might speed new trade sanctions on Moscow, without waiting for definitive proof.
“He has one last chance to show he means to help,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after a telephone call to Putin.
Britain, which lost 10 citizens, said further sanctions were available for use against Russia. “If Russia is the principal culprit, we can take further action against them and make it clear this kind of sponsored war is completely unacceptable,” Defence Minister Michael Fallon told the Mail on Sunday.
Prime Minister David Cameron, writing in The Sunday Times, said European countries should make their power count in dealing with the Ukraine crisis, “yet we sometimes behave as if we need Russia more than Russia needs us.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful figure in the EU, spoke to Putin on Saturday, urging his cooperation. Merkel’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper: “Moscow may have a last chance now to show that it really is seriously interested in a solution.”
“Now is the moment for everyone to stop and think to themselves what might happen if we don’t stop the escalation.”
Germany, reliant like other EU states on Russian energy and more engaged in Russian trade than the United States, has been reluctant to escalate a confrontation with Moscow that has revived memories of the Cold War. But with military action not seen as an option, economic leverage is a vital instrument.
Russian retaliation
Russia said on Saturday it was retaliating against sanctions imposed by the United States last week, before the air disaster, by barring entry to unnamed Americans and warned of a “boomerang effect” on US business. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry did agree in a phone call to try to get both sides in Ukraine to reach a consensus on peace, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
The State Department, however, put the onus on Russia, saying Kerry urged Russia to take “immediate and clear actions to reduce tensions in Ukraine.”
Driving home its assertion that the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian SA-11 radar-guided missile, Ukraine’s Western-backed government said it had “compelling evidence” the battery was not just brought in from Russia but manned by three Russian citizens who had now taken the truck-mounted system back over the border.
A pro-Russian rebel confronts OSCE officials at the crash site on Friday. Photo: AP
The prime minister, denying Russian suggestions that Kiev’s forces had fired a missile, said only a “very professional” crew could have brought down the speeding jetliner from 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) - not “drunken gorillas” among the ill-trained insurgents who want the Russian-speaking east to be annexed by Moscow.
Fighting flared in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. The government said it was pressing its offensive in the east.
Observers from Europe’s OSCE security agency visited part of the crash site near the village of Hrabove for a second day on Saturday and again found their access hampered by armed men from the forces of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk. An OSCE official said, however, they saw more than on Friday.
At one point, a Reuters correspondent heard a senior rebel tell the OSCE delegation they could not approach the wreckage and would simply be informed in due course of an investigation conducted by the separatists. However, fighters later let them visit an area where one of the airliner’s two engines lay.
“The terrorists, with the help of Russia, are trying to destroy evidence of international crimes,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement. “The terrorists have taken 38 bodies to the morgue in Donetsk,” it said, accusing people with “strong Russian accents” of threatening to conduct autopsies.
Ukraine’s prime minister said armed men had barred government experts from collecting evidence.
Flowers from the mourners lie at the crash site. Photo: AFP
Kerry told Lavrov the United States is “very concerned” over reports that the remains of victims and debris from the crash site have been removed or tampered with, the State Department said. He said Washington was also concerned over denial of “proper access” for international investigators and OSCE monitors, it said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged the United Nations on Saturday to label rebels fighting his forces in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as belonging to “terrorist organisations”.
Retrieving remains
In the regional capital Donetsk, the prime minister of the separatist authorities told a news conference that Kiev was holding up the arrival of international experts whose mission to probe the cause - and potentially blame - for the disaster was authorised on Friday by the United Nations Security Council.
And contrary to earlier statements by the rebels, Alexander Borodai said they had not found the black box flight recorders. He said rebels were avoiding disturbing the area.
“There’s a grandmother. A body landed right in her bed. She says ‘please take this body away’. But we cannot tamper with the site,” Borodai said. “Bodies of innocent people are lying out in the heat. We reserve the right, if the delay continues ... to begin the process of taking away the bodies. We ask the Russian Federation to help us with this problem and send their experts.”
Midday temperatures are around 30 Celsius (85 Fahrenheit).
An armed pro-Russia militant attempts to stop journalists from accessing the site. Photo: AFP
At Hrabove, one armed man from the separatist forces told Reuters that bodies had already been taken away in trucks. Another said that immediately after the crash people had looted valuables. But fighters and local people say they have been doing their best to collect evidence and preserve human remains.
As the stench of death began to pervade the area after Thursday’s crash, correspondents watched rescue workers carry bodies across the fields and gather remains in black sacks.
Meeting Ukrainian President Poroshenko in Kiev, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said: “We are already shocked by the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly ... People are angry, furious.”
The Ukrainian security council in Kiev said staff of the Emergencies Ministry had found 186 bodies and had checked some 18 sq km (seven square miles) of the scattered 25-sq-km (10-square-mile) crash site. But the workers were not free to conduct a normal investigation.
“The fighters have let the Emergencies Ministry workers in there but they are not allowing them to take anything from the area,” security council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. “The fighters are taking away all that has been found.”
Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site. Photo: Reuters
Malaysia, whose national airline has been battered by its second major disaster this year, said it was “inhumane” to bar access to the site around the village of Hrabove, but said Russia was doing its “level best” to help.
A team of Malaysian experts flew in to Kiev on Saturday and experts from Interpol are due there on Sunday to help with the identification of victims. Dutch, US and a host of other specialists are being lined up to help in the investigation.
As tales of personal grief unfolded, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed his own family was involved - his 83-year-old step-grandmother had been aboard the flight.
The United Nations said 80 children were aboard. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner follows the disappearance of flight MH370 in March with 239 passengers.
Malaysia Airlines has defended its use of the route, 1,000 feet (300 metres) above the area closed by Ukraine due to the hostilities. Some airlines had been avoiding the area, though many others were flying over. The issue has raised questions of liability for the deaths and damage and about international supervisors’ roles.
The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula a month later.
Wreckage is pictured at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Photo: Reuters
The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution to condemn the “shooting down” of a Malaysian passenger plane in Ukraine, demand armed groups allow access to the crash site, and call on states in the region to cooperate with an international investigation.
Australia – which lost 28 citizens – circulated a draft text, seen by Reuters, to the 15-member Security Council late on Saturday and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it could be put to a vote as early as Monday.
The draft resolution “demands that those responsible for this incident be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability.”
It “condemns in the strongest terms the shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 ... resulting in the tragic loss of 298 lives” and “demands that all states and other actors in the region refrain from acts of violence directed against civilian aircraft.”
The United States and other powers have said the plane was likely brought down on Thursday by a surface-to-air missile fired from rebel territory.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Friday that Washington could not rule out Russian help in firing the missile.
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine to cooperate and insisted that an international investigation must not leap to conclusions. Moscow denies involvement and has pointed a finger at Kiev’s military.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of fuelling a pro-Russian uprising that threatens to break up the former Soviet republic of 46 million people. Russia denies orchestrating the unrest and says Ukraine’s attempts to end it by military force are making the situation worse.
The draft UN resolution “calls on all states and actors in the region to cooperate fully in relation to the international investigation of the incident, including with respect to immediate access to the crash site.”
It “demands that the armed groups in control of the crash site and the surrounding area refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unfettered access to the site and surrounding area.”
International monitors the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Saturday they had been allowed to see more of the crash site, though gunmen still stopped them approaching some of the wreckage.
Russia’s UN mission declined to comment on the draft Security Council resolution.
The Security Council issued a statement on Friday calling for a “full, thorough and independent international investigation,” access to the site and appropriate accountability. Britain drafted the short text and hoped the council could issue it on Thursday but Russia requested more time to review it.
The Australian-drafted resolution “supports efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines.”
It also “insists that the bodies of the victims are treated in a dignified, respectful and professional manner.”
The Fans with their son Kevin on Facebook.Photo: SCMP Pictures
A change to their usual travel routine proved fatal for a celebrated Hong Kong-born chef and his Malaysian wife.
Each year Fan Shun-po and Jenny Fan, both in their 50s and who owned a Chinese restaurant in Rotterdam, would fly from Amsterdam to Hong Kong and then Kuala Lumpur to visit their respective hometowns.
But this time, because they had to take Jenny's elderly mother home to Penang after she paid them a visit, they opted to fly from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur aboard the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
The couple, who perished with 296 others aboard the Boeing 777 after it was shot down over Ukraine, are survived by their son Kevin, who is in his early 20s and also lives in Rotterdam.
The Hongkonger and his Malaysian wife seen in a Dutch cooking show.
Christy Liu, who was in the same Buddhist group as the couple in the Dutch port city, said people who knew them were concerned about Kevin in the wake of the tragedy.
"It is devastating to him. He is very sad, not answering phone calls and only willing to send text messages," Liu said.
"He just texted us back with messages [yesterday] afternoon. He was finding it impossible [on Thursday] to face the matter."
She said friends of the Fans would try to help Kevin arrange his parents' funeral. Many of Kevin's friends have posted on his Facebook page the word sterkte - Dutch for strength.
Fan and his wife migrated to the Netherlands in 1978 and made a name for themselves when their restaurant in downtown Rotterdam, Asian Glories, won a recommendation from the Michelin Guide.
Tributes poured in on the restaurant's Facebook page, where a poster named Gaea Gail recalled nights when "after closing hours [as] we sat and talked about life, Jenny was as lively as she always was and Mr Fan his smiling peaceful self, listening to his wife as she talked the night away".
The pair were also respected for their philanthropy. "Whenever there were natural disasters, the Fans never hesitated to organise charity dinners to help raise funds," Liu said.
In the wake of the Fukushima tsunami in March 2011, the pair staged a dinner that raised €27,500 (HK$288,000) for victims.
Hong Kong's Immigration Department said it was checking if more Hongkongers were on board Flight MH17.
A rescue worker carries a flight data recorder at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Photo: Reuters
Dutch forensic experts on Monday began examining the bodies from the MH17 plane disaster, as world leaders denounced the “shambolic” state of the crash site left in the hands of pro-Russian rebels.
Kiev’s prime minister said the remains of some 250 victims of the 298 killed when the flight went down last week, apparently shot by a surface-to-air missile, had been recovered and moved to train cars, and could be transferred to the Netherlands.
But the bodies are in rebel-held territory where Kiev holds no sway, near the city of Donetsk where intense shelling broke out again on Monday.
The UN Security Council is expected on Monday to adopt an Australia-backed resolution demanding that pro-Russian separatists grant unrestricted access to the crash site for international experts.
Patience was wearing thin over Moscow’s stance, even as President Vladimir Putin pledged Russia would do “everything in its power” to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and to open access to the site.
The under-fire Russian leader appeared to seek to temper world fury after Washington said it had overwhelming evidence the missile system used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines jet was transferred from Russia to the rebels.
After speaking with Putin, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott noted he had “said all the right things” but that he would “hold the president to his word”.
“That is certainly my intention, and it should be the intention of the family of nations to hold the president to his word,” Abbott said, as concerns rose over tampering with evidence including the victims’ remains and the plane’s black boxes.
Twenty-eight Australian nationals and nine residents were among the passengers from a dozen countries on the doomed flight.
At the Torez station, close to Donetsk, an AFP reporter witnessed the Dutch investigators, wearing masks and headlights, open each of the train wagons holding the remains of recovered bodies, amid an overpowering stench.
Even as Putin pledged to work toward dialogue between the Ukrainian rivals, intense shelling rained down in the rebel stronghold Donetsk, just 60 kilometres from Torez where the bodies are being held.
Rescue workers collect bodies at the site of the crash. Photo: AFP
Insurgent fighters had closed off the roads in the area on the edge of the city and terrified civilians were fleeing the fighting in minibuses and on foot.
A rebel fighter told AFP that government troops had attacked their positions close to the transport hub at around 10 am (0700 GMT).
“They came within about two kilometres of the station,” insurgent gunman Volodya told AFP.
Even as Dutch teams were inspecting the bodies, international investigators have yet to gain access to the actual crash site in Grabove, with debris spread out for kilometres.
“As anyone who has been watching the footage will know, this is still an absolutely shambolic situation,” Australia’s Abbott said.
Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai has also expressed concerns that “the sanctity of the crash site has been severely compromised”.
Only a team of conflict monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were allowed briefly to access the main crash site.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has slammed as “grotesque” the manner in which “drunken separatist soldiers” were allegedly “unceremoniously piling bodies into trucks, removing both bodies, as well as evidence, from the site”.
Insurgents defended their actions, with a rebel chief saying they had moved scores of bodies “out of respect for the families”.
Washington has pointedly blamed Moscow for supplying rebel with the missile system used to shoot down the passenger jet.
Flowers laid at the scene of the crash. Photo: AFP
Kiev on Sunday released fresh recordings of what it says are intercepted conversations between rebels organising to hide the flight’s black boxes from international monitors.
And the US embassy confirmed as authentic recordings released by Kiev of an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer as they realised they had shot down a passenger jet.
The Washington Post said Ukraine’s counterintelligence chief had photographs and related evidence that three Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems moved from rebel-held territory into Russia less than 12 hours after the crash.
However, top Russian officials and state media have suggested that Kiev’s new leaders staged the attack to blame the rebels.
The UN Security Council votes at 1900 GMT on Monday on a resolution demanding that armed groups controlling the area “refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site... and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unrestricted access to the site and surrounding area for the appropriate investigating authorities.”
The leaders of France, Britain and Germany also signalled they could ramp up sanctions against Russia as early as Tuesday - barely a week after the last round of toughened embargoes.
The separatists’ violent bid to join Russia is the latest chapter in a prolonged crisis sparked by Kiev’s desire for closer ties with the EU - a sentiment many in the Russian-speaking east do not share.
A pro-Russia separatist stands near a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Photo: Reuters
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew grateful to generous Sunderland fans in wake of MH17 plane tragedy
Alan Pardew has thanked Sunderland fans who raised almost £20,000 in the memory of the two Newcastle supporters killed in the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane disaster
Humbled by tragedy: a solemn looking Alan Pardew takes a training session in Dunedin New Zealand Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Luke Edwards
11:31AM BST 21 Jul 2014
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has thanked the supporters of local rivals Sunderland who have raised almost £20,000 in the memory of the two supporters killed when the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashed in Ukraine.
John Alder and Liam Sweeney were on the plane that was shot down last week as they were travelling out to watch Newcastle’s pre-season tour of New Zealand.
Although the rivalry between the two north-east clubs is among the most ferocious in English football, Sunderland fans have been deeply moved by the tragedy.
An appeal for donations for a floral tribute to the two men has raised a huge sum of money that the families of the two men have asked to be given to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
“There’s a lot made of the rivalry between the two cities,” said Pardew. “Of course that is there, but it has always been on competitive level.
“I’d like to thank all of the Sunderland fans who have paid tribute. And actually raise a staggering amount of money already.
“I am very proud of Sunderland for the way they have conducted it and I want to thank them.”
The Sunderland supporter responsible for setting up the online donation appeal, Gary Ferguson, said he had been overwhelmed by the response.
“These were proper fans,” he told The Journal. “They were going to New Zealand to support their team. That’s what really resonated with me and with everyone else.
“I’m a Sunderland season ticket holder and I never miss a home game, but these were real loyal supporters. People might be surprised with the rivalry, but I haven’t had any negative responses at all.
Pardew hopes his Newcastle side can pay a fitting tribute to the two supporters killed on their way to support them by having a successful season.
"None of us would be sitting here without the fans,” he said. “Owners and managers come and go, as do players, but the fans are always there, and these two guys in particular, to go to the lengths that they did to get out here, has brought home just how important supporters are to us.
“Sometimes when you lose lives in that manner, it puts into context what we do. This season we want to give their families something to remember them by, by having a successful season.”
On Sunday, Newcastle fans’ group The Football Social called for fans from of all the region’s clubs to attend the club's first home match of the new season, a friendly against Manchester City as a fitting tribute to Mr Alder and Mr Sweeney.
A Twitter post said: “John and Liam would have been attending this friendly match, so let’s get behind them and show them that we are supporting them and their friends and family, put your rivalry behind you and attend this match whether you are a Sunderland fan or any other fan.”
The fans added: “Divided by rivalry but united by grief.”
Images of the Russian base near Rostov. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The Obama administration, detailing what it called evidence of Russian complicity in the downing of a Malaysian airliner, released satellite images and other sensitive intelligence that officials said proved Moscow had trained and equipped rebels in Ukraine responsible for the attack.
But the three officials who briefed the media said they still could not say they were certain who had done it and whether Russia had been involved.
The officials said they had ruled out involvement by Ukraine's military because its missiles were not within range of the Malaysian plane at the time it was brought down. "That is not a plausible scenario," said one senior US official.
Without disclosing classified information, the officials shared photos posted on social media of the crash site and what they described as missile movements across the Russia-Ukraine border.
The intelligence officials said they had seen an increasing volume of heavy weaponry crossing the border from Russia and that Russia had provided training to the rebels - some of them Russian citizens - including in the use of air-defence systems. They provided an aerial photo of a military facility outside the Russian city of Rostov, near the border with Ukraine, which they said had become a centre of training and weapons supplies for the separatists.
Analysts at the CIA and other US intelligence agencies are continuing to examine information about the crash.
"We are seeing a full-court press by the Russian government to instruct affiliated or friendly elements to manipulate the media environment to spread Russia's version of the story," one of the three officials said. "What this looks like again is a classic case of blaming the victims."
The US intelligence officials, who included experts on Russia's military and its relationship with separatists in Ukraine, said they did not know the identities or even the nationalities - whether Russian or possibly defectors from Ukraine's military - of those who had launched SA-11 surface-to-air missile.
Nor have US spy agencies reached any conclusions on the motive for the attack, except to say that the reaction among separatists recorded on social media indicates they believed they were targeting a Ukrainian plane.
Officials said the rebels operating the missile battery may not have had access to systems designed to help distinguish military targets from civilian planes.
Meanwhile Dutch investigators said they have found no evidence the airliner's black box voice recorder had been tampered with.
"The cockpit voice recorder was damaged but the part that contains the data was intact," the Dutch Safety Board said. The board said it would now work on assessing the information. The examination of the airliner's other black box, the Flight Data Recorder, would start today, it said.
First plane carrying bodies of MH17 victims arrives in Netherlands as nation mourns
Britain receives black boxes from Malaysia Airlines airline shot down over eastern Ukraine
Dutch military personnel carry a coffin containing one of the victims of the MH17 plane crash to a waiting hearse at the airbase in Eindhoven. Photo: EPA
The first bodies from flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday almost a week after it was shot down over Ukraine, with grieving relatives and the king and queen solemnly receiving the as yet unidentified victims.
Church bells rang out throughout the country as the planes touched down with the much-delayed return of the first 40 bodies of the 298 people killed in the disaster, most of them Dutch.
In a reminder of the ongoing war that is hampering recovery and investigation efforts, the Ukrainian military said that two of its fighter jets had been shot down Wednesday, possibly close to the Boeing’s crash site.
The Netherlands has been united in grief and growing anger because of delays in getting bodies home and over the way pro-Russian separatists have treated the crash site, bodies and personal possessions.
The planes left from Kharkiv in Ukraine, where the bodies were given a dignified ceremony as they were carried on board by army cadets before a small party of officials.
1,000 bereaved
Around 1,000 bereaved relatives of the 193 Dutch dead, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and representatives of the other nations that lost citizens on the flight met the planes.
Coffins containing remains of Malaysia Airlines MH17 victims are loaded onto a plane at Kharkiv airport. Photo: Reuters
The bodies are to be transferred to a military base at Hilversum, southeast of Amsterdam, where forensics experts will identify them.
Flags of the 11 nations that lost citizens in the crash flew at half mast at the airport.
Uniformed members of the Dutch military marched to the planes to unload the wooden coffins, while a trumpeter played the Last Post and Reveille.
Motorways along the 100-kilometre (65-mile) route from Eindhoven to Hilversum have been closed for the long convoy of hearses to pass, one coffin per car.
A minute’s silence was observed nationwide, during which no flights landed or took off at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, from where the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight took off on Thursday.
US intelligence officials have said they believe rebels mistakenly shot down the plane that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with a surface-to-air missile.
Members of the press wait at a military airport in Eindhoven for the plane from Kharkiv. Photo: AFP
The rebels on Wednesday used rockets to shoot down two Ukrainian Sukhoi fighter jets, although it was not clear exactly how far away from the Malaysia Airlines crash site.
Both pilots managed to parachute out, military spokesman Vladislav Seleznev said of the shooting down possibly as close as 25 kilometres from the MH17 crash site.
Unrecovered bodies
Experts and world leaders have expressed concern that not all the remains have been recovered from the sprawling crash site in rebel-held territory.
“It’s quite possible that many bodies are still out there, in the open in the European summer, subject to interference, and subject to the ravages of heat and animals,” said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 nationals.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop will travel together to Ukraine on Thursday for talks about completing the repatriation of bodies and the crash probe, the foreign ministry said.
The rebels controlling the crash site released some bodies and handed over two black boxes to Malaysian officials only after intense international pressure.
The black boxes were delivered to Britain for expert analysis, including whether they might have been tampered with, on Wednesday.
DNA samples taken
Rutte has warned that it could take weeks or even months for the bodies to be identified, although some are expected to be handed over to families soon.
Dutch police have been visiting the bereaved for counselling but also to retrieve DNA samples such as from hairbrushes, details of tattoos and fingerprints, as well as medical and dental records, to help with the identification task.
A truce has been declared by rival sides around the crash impact site, but international investigators still face massive obstacles. Dutch officials confirmed receipt of only 200 of the 298 victims’ bodies.
International monitors said more remains were left at the vast crash site, littered with poignant fragments from hundreds of destroyed lives.
A Dutch C130 aircraft carrying 16 bodies leaves Ukraine soil bound for the Netherlands following a ceremony at Kharkiv airport. Photo: EPA
Kiev said the Netherlands and other countries that lost citizens are proposing to send police officers to secure the site, amid concerns that vital evidence has been tampered with.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged to “do everything” to influence the separatists and ensure a full probe into the crash.
Putin is staring down fresh European sanctions just a week after the latest set was unveiled over its role in the Ukraine crisis, which has chilled East-West tensions to the lowest point in years.
Ukrainian government troops are pushing on with an offensive to wrest control of east Ukraine’s industrial heartland from the pro-Moscow separatists.
Julie Bishop flags the possibility of sending Australian peacekeepers to protect MH17 crash site. AAP
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has left open the possibility that Australian peacekeepers could be dispatched to help secure the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine.
Ms Bishop confirmed she will travel with the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Frans Timmermans on Thursday morning to Kiev, to discuss with the Ukrainian Government and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation Europe, the most effective way of securing the rebel-controlled region near Donetsk.
They will then continue on to Kharkiv - where bodies are being transported by military planes to the Netherlands - as part of the joint mission.
Asked if there might be a peacekeeping force involving Australia sent in to protect the MH17 crash site, Ms Bishop indicated it was an option currently on the agenda for discussion.
"I will be travelling to the Ukraine to meet with the Ukrainian leadership to build on the discussions Prime Minister Abbott has had overnight including with the Ukrainians, Dutch and others," Ms Bishop told media following her attendance at a ceremony for the first 40 bodies of victims arriving back in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
"We must ensure the investigators and those who have the gruesome task of identifying body remains are able to do that in safety. Unfettered, without any tampering from anyone.
"We are looking at the most effective way.
"The work that must be undertaken (is) painstaking, long, difficult work. But we will not rest until we have counted every body, every Australian aboard that flight."
Ms Bishop said Prime Minister Tony Abbott would be involved in details being worked out on Thursday with the Ukrainians and other leaders.
Australia will also be united with the Netherlands and other impacted countries in ensuring the perpetrators of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 that killed 298, including Australian citizens and residents, nearly a week ago are brought to justice.
Ms Bishop said the government was determined to find who was responsible for the "atrocious act and to hold them to account".
The government has already been in contact with the friends and family of Australian victims, about whether they wish to travel to the crash site.
"We are compiling an understanding of what friends and families are looking for," Ms Bishop said.
"Our concern in all of this is to give the families their rightful embrace of those who were killed on that flight. We just want to bring them home."
Australia's special envoy in Ukraine, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said security was currently being provided by European security body OSCE and unarmed civilian escorts.
"They are doing a very fine job but it's probably necessary to have something a little bit more than that. We just have to work out how that might be done."
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on Wednesday was asked about the possibility of international forces securing the area.
Fighting rages near flight MH17 crash site, frustrating investigations
Pro-Russian rebel leader in Ukraine confirms they had Buk rockets near where MH17 downed
A week after flight MH17 was shot down, wreckage from the Boeing 777 is strewn over a wide area, such as overhead lockers in trees. Photo: AP
Fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels raged yesterday near the crash site of Malaysian flight MH17, as countries which lost 298 citizens in the disaster moved to deploy their police to secure the impact zone.
The Dutch team leading the crash probe was stuck in Kiev, unable to join a handful of international investigators at the rebel-controlled site.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's army reported four soldiers killed over the last 24 hours in its offensive to retake the eastern industrial heartland from the pro-Russian insurgents. Two Ukrainian fighter jets were shot down Wednesday 45 kilometres from the crash site, just as the first bodies recovered from the fated flight were flown out to the Netherlands, which counts 193 citizens lost in the disaster.
While the Dutch offered a solemn ceremony for the victims' remains, soldiers hoisting 40 wooden coffins into as many waiting hearses, British experts began analysing the black boxes from the flight.
Investigators said human remains were still strewn amidst the debris of the wreck, where recovery work has been at a standstill since Tuesday.
Dutch authorities said they can only be sure that 200 corpses have been recovered out of the 298 people killed on board.
Announcing Australia was ready to deploy police to secure the debris zone, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a rigorous search of the site was still needed.
"On the site it is still clear that nothing is happening without the approval of the armed rebels who brought the plane down in the first place," he said.
Abbott, whose country lost 28 citizens, said 50 Australian officers were on standby in London.
Rebels and government forces have declared a ceasefire in the immediate vicinity of the site, but just beyond, fierce fighting was ongoing.
The Ukrainian military said rockets were yesterday being fired "from the Russian side", hitting locations close to Luhansk airport and in several areas in the Donetsk region.
Mortar shells also rained down on Avdiyika in the Donetsk region, the army said, without giving details of casualties.
Since the airliner crashed with the loss of all 298 on board, the most contentious issue has been who fired the missile that brought the jet down in an area where government forces are fighting pro-Russian rebels.
Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the rebels' Vostok battalion, acknowledged for the first time since the plane was brought down last Thursday that the rebels did possess the Buk missile system and said it could have been sent back subsequently to remove proof of its presence.
Khodakovsky blamed the Kiev authorities for provoking what may have been the missile strike that destroyed the doomed airliner, saying Kiev had deliberately launched air strikes in the area, knowing the missiles were in place.
"I knew that a Buk came from Luhansk. At the time I was told that a Buk from Luhansk was coming under the flag of the LNR," he said, referring to the Luhansk People's Republic.
"I think they sent it back. Because I found out about it at exactly the moment that I found out that this tragedy had taken place. They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence," Khodakovsky said.
"The question is this: Ukraine received timely evidence that the volunteers have this technology, through the fault of Russia. It not only did nothing to protect security, but provoked the use of this type of weapon against a plane that was flying with peaceful civilians," he said.
Australian troops to help secure flight MH17 crash site in Ukraine
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says 90 Australian police are in Europe and ready to travel on to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to secure human remains and personal effects
Assistant Australian Federal Police commissioner Michael Outrim (left) shows Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott an aerial view of the MH17 crash site in Canberra on Friday. Photo: EPA
Australian troops plan to join a police contingent helping to secure the site in Ukraine where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday.
He stressed the mission would be humanitarian in nature.
Abbott has criticised the response on the ground to the downing of the plane, which was carrying 298 people when it was shot down in rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
About 90 Australian Federal Police have already been deployed to Europe for a planned international mission to help secure the wreckage and retrieve bodies. A further 100 were to leave yesterday to participate in the operation and "do the right thing by the grieving families", Abbott said. Canberra was close to finalising an agreement with Ukraine for deployment of the officers.
"Many of the police deployed won't be armed. Some of them could be armed," Abbott said.
"And, yes, there will be some ADF (Australian Defence Force personnel) as part of this deployment, should it go ahead."
Abbott's office later confirmed the defence personnel were troops.
The majority of those on flight MH17 were Dutch, but 28 Australians and nine permanent residents of Australia were also on the plane.
"This is a humanitarian mission with a clear and simple objective, to bring them home," Abbott said. "All we want to do is to claim our dead and to bring them home." He added that given human remains were still to be recovered, it was "more important than ever" that the site be properly secured.
"I expect the operation on the ground in Ukraine, should the deployment go ahead, to last no longer than a few weeks."
The prime minister said he had spoken twice to Russian President Vladimir Putin since the tragedy occurred last week.
"President Putin has been full of sympathy, as you would expect from another human being, for what's happened to 37 families in Australia," Abbott said.
"And he certainly has been publicly and privately supportive of securing the site so that the full impartial investigation ... can be completed and all of the bodies can be brought home."
Second wave of planes carrying flight MH17 bodies from Ukraine arrives in the Netherlands
The bodies of more victims from flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday as the US said Russia intends to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to separatist forces in Ukraine
A convoy of funeral hearses carrying the remains of the victims of the MH17 plane crash is driven from the airbase in Eindhoven to Hilversum, the Netherlands, on Thursday. Two more planes carrying bodies are scheduled to arrive on Friday. Photo: EPA
Two more military aircraft carrying remains of victims from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday, while Australian and Dutch diplomats joined to promote a plan for a UN team to secure the crash site, which has been controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Human remains continue to be found a full week after the plane went down, underlining concerns about the halting and chaotic recovery effort at the sprawling site spread across farmland in eastern Ukraine. Armed separatists control the area and have hindered access by investigators.
All 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 – most of them Dutch citizens – were killed when the plane was shot down on July 17. US officials say the Boeing 777 was probably shot down by a missile from territory held by pro-Russian rebels, probably by accident.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who says he fears some remains will never be recovered unless security is tightened, has proposed a multinational force mounted by countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia that lost citizens in the disaster. Abbott said on Thursday he had dispatched 50 police officers to London to be ready to join any organisation that may result.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was travelling with her Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans to Kiev to seek an agreement with the Ukraine government to allow international police to secure the wreckage, Abbott said.
Details, including which countries would contribute and whether officers would be armed and protected by international troops, were yet to be agreed, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, global aviation leaders will meet in Montreal next week to initiate discussions on a plan to address safety and security issues raised by the downing of the jet, an aviation official said late on Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the issue publicly by name.
International experts found more remains still at the crash site both on Wednesday and Thursday, Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), told reporters in Donetsk on Thursday. OSCE observers, sent to monitor the conflict, escorted a delegation from Australia to examine the wreckage on Thursday for the first time. More Australian specialists are expected to join them on Friday, Bociurkiw said.
On Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution proposed by Australia demanding that rebels co-operate with an independent investigation and allow all remaining bodies to be recovered.
The first remains arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday and were met by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and hundreds of relatives. The two planes on Thursday brought a total of 74 more coffins back to the Netherlands, said government spokesman Lodewijk Hekking.
Patricia Zorko, head of the National Police Unit that includes the Dutch national forensic team, said some 200 experts, including 80 from overseas, were working at a military barracks on the outskirts of the central city of Hilversum to identify the dead. Around the world some 1,000 people are involved in the process, which also includes gathering information from next of kin.
A piece of wreckage is seen at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Thursday. Photo: Reuters
Staff will “examine the bodies, describe the bodies, take dental information, DNA and put all the information together in the computer and compare this information with the information they gathered from the families in the last days,” police spokesman Ed Kraszewski said in a telephone interview. “Then we have to see if there is a match.”
There are three scientific methods of identifying bodies: dental records, finger prints and DNA.
After the experts believe they have positively identified a body, they will defend their findings to an international panel. If both agree, the positive identification will be sent to a Dutch prosecution office, which has the power to release the body to the next of kin.
Zorko warned that the process of identification could be drawn out.
“Unfortunately this type of investigation often takes time,” she said. “Count on weeks and maybe even months.”
The Dutch Safety Board said investigators in the UK had successfully downloaded data from Flight 17’s Flight Data Recorder. It said “no evidence or indications of manipulation of the recorder was found.” It did not release any details of the data.
Meanwhile, police and traffic authorities appealed to the public not to stop on the highway as a convoy of hearses passes by on Thursday on its way from Eindhoven Air Base to Hilversum.
Dutch military personnel carry a coffin containing the remains of one of the victims to a hearse at the airbase in Eindhoven. Photo: EPA
On Wednesday, the convoy of hearses passed through roads lined with thousands of members of the public, who applauded, threw flowers or stood in silence as the cars drove by.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the number of Dutch victims had risen by one to 194, taking into account a woman with joint German and Dutch nationalities who earlier had been listed as German.
Senior US intelligence officials said on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the crash, but offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.
The officials said the plane was probably shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The US officials cited intercepts, satellite photos and social media postings by separatists, some of which have been authenticated by US experts.
Russia on Thursday brushed off the accusations. Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said in a video statement that if the US officials indeed had the proof the plane shot down by a missile launched from the rebel-held territory, “how come they have not been made public?”
Pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government troops have been fighting for more than three months, leaving at least 400 dead and displacing tens of thousands.
The Obama administration on Thursday accused Russia of firing artillery from its territory into Ukraine to hit Ukrainian military sites and asserted that Moscow is boosting its supply of weaponry to pro-Russian separatists.
Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov on Thursday rejected US claims Moscow was continuing to supply armed Ukrainian rebels with missiles. Photo: AFP
“We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to separatist forces in Ukraine and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russian to attack Ukrainian military positions,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. She said the evidence derived from “some intelligence information” but declined to elaborate, saying it would compromise sources and methods of intelligence collection.
In Brussels, ambassadors from the 28 European Union nations agreed on Thursday to add more names to the list of Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians subject to EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans for allegedly acting against Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Seventy-two people are already covered by the measures.
European Union officials said the new names would be made public only on Friday and the fresh sanctions could for the first time result in Russian companies being blacklisted from doing business in the EU.
On Friday, the ambassadors will meet again to discuss the possible imposition of further sweeping measures, targeting Russia’s high-tech, energy, defence and banking sectors, if Russia fails to cease its alleged support for the rebellion.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the White House expects that at least some of the individuals targeted by the EU will overlap with those sanctioned already by the US.
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Securing MH17 site a 'dangerous tightrope act': experts
AFP
July 26, 2014, 5:27 am
The Hague (AFP) - Sending Western forces to secure the MH17 crash site in rebel-held Ukraine and protect investigators will be a perilous balancing act involving unpredictable separatists and Russian pride, experts said Friday.
"It's going to be a dangerous tightrope act," defence analyst Justin Bronk told AFP, referring to a Dutch and Australian push to put troops on the ground where the Malaysian passenger jet was shot down on July 17.
Both countries, whose citizens accounted for three-quarters of the 298 people on board, say they are sending police to the site and seeking a legal mandate to also deploy troops.
"They want to use as few lightly equipped troops as possible to avoid provoking the Russians," said Bronk, an analyst with the Royal United Services Institute in London.
"Bear in mind, part of the reason that this whole conflict started is over Russia?s view that the West, in the guise of both NATO and the EU, are coming ever further eastwards,? he said.
"At the same time, to ensure their protection they will want to send them with quite heavy equipment, given the equipment both sides are firing at each other in the region."
US experts believe the Malaysia Airlines jet was mistakenly shot down by the pro-Russian separatists with a sophisticated surface-to-air missile provided by Russia.
International investigators from eight countries, including Russia, have yet to gain access to the vast crash site amid security concerns.
- No extraction capacity -
"If the situation suddenly deteriorates, we have no extraction capacity," Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, which lost 193 people in the disaster, told parliament on Friday.
"We have no soldiers on the ground."
The UN Security Council, including Russia, on Monday passed a resolution backing an independent investigation of the disaster, and the Netherlands and Australia are reportedly drafting a new resolution to send an armed force to secure the crash site.
Australia, which had 28 citizens on board, is sending around 200 police and an unspecified number of troops "on a humanitarian mission" to secure the crash site, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Friday.
The Netherlands is sending 40 unarmed military police on Friday to help remove remaining bodies.
An unspecified number of Dutch troops have been consigned to barracks ahead of a possible deployment, the defence ministry told AFP, declining to elaborate further.
"If we go over there with a big military presence, the situation could become more unstable than stable," Rutte said.
Despite a fragile ceasefire in the immediate vicinity, fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces is actually intensifying in the broader region beyond the crash zone.
And experts say debris from the plane's explosion, at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), is likely scattered over a vast area of perhaps 100 square kilometres (around 40 square miles).
"There may be rebels over there who have every interest in light not being shed on the facts," Ko Colijn, director and defence expert at the Netherlands' Clingendael Institute, told AFP.
- Small-scale war -
In order to properly secure the crash site, thousands of troops would have to be deployed, says military historian Christ Klep of the University of Amsterdam.
"You need radar, reconnaissance, commandos, anti-tank weapons, attack helicopters... Well, that's starting to look like a small-scale war," Klep told Dutch broadcaster NOS.
Colijn said that world powers will seek to make good on Russian President Vladimir Putin's promises to help with the investigation.
"This may appear odd but I think they will try to get Russia involved as much as possible in any mission. It would be a kind of guarantee," said Colijn.
"Russia's role is crucial," agreed Christophe Paulussen, international law expert at the Asser Institute in The Hague.
"If Russia does indeed have influence over the separatists, a UN Security Council resolution supported by Russia would apparently be respected by the separatists," he told AFP.
"But you shouldn't forget that the separatists are themselves divided."
"The biggest danger is the unpredictability of the different groups," former Dutch military chief of staff Dick Berlijn told state broadcaster NOS.
"They are not a cohesive whole," said Bronk. "They have different leaderships, they have, potentially, different views and agendas."
"It is almost impossible to guarantee that a mission like this one will not come under fire at some point."
Malaysian, Dutch PMs to discuss gaining ‘full and secure access’ to MH17 crash site
Najib Razak will travel to the Netherlands to talk with Mark Rutte about ensuring investigators' access to debris from the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak signs a condolence book for the victims of flight MH17 at the residence of the Netherlands' ambassador in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Photo: AFP
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday he would meet his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte next week to discuss how to secure full access for investigators to the site in Ukraine where a Malaysian airliner was brought down.
Pro-Russian separatists remain in control of the area in eastern Ukraine where the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was downed last week on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 on board.
Najib helped clinch a deal with separatist leaders to secure the return of the victims’ remains as well as the aircraft’s two “black box” flight recorders, critical to determining what happened to the aircraft. It was now time, he said, to proceed with the full investigation.
“My priority now is to ensure the third part of the deal is honoured, and that international investigators are given full and secure access to the site,” he said in a statement.
“This will require the cooperation of those in control of the crash site and the Ukrainian armed forces.”
The statement said Najib would fly to the Netherlands for talks on Wednesday, after Malaysia has marked the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte attends a debate about flight MH17 in Ukraine at the parliament in The Hague in the Netherlands on Thursday. Photo: EPA
Malaysian experts believe at least 30 investigators will be required to cover the full site of the crash, the statement said, in addition to Dutch investigators and an expert from the United Nations’ civil aviation body, the ICAO.
“Unfortunately events on the ground – including ongoing fighting between Ukrainian and separatist forces – prevent such a large contingent of investigators being deployed,” it said.
Ukraine’s armed forces have been trying to dislodge pro-Russian separatists from towns in eastern Ukraine since April.
The United States and other Western countries suggest the separatists shot down the plane with a surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia. The separatists deny shooting down the plane and Russia says it has provided no such weapons.
A total of 193 Dutch nationals and 43 Malaysians were among the victims aboard MH17.
The Dutch Safety Board said this week it had taken control of an investigation into the crash and would coordinate a team of investigators from Ukraine, Malaysia, Germany, the United States, Britain, Russia and the ICAO.
Debris of the fuselage at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Grabovo, some 80 kilometres east of Donetsk, Ukraine on Thursday. Photo: AFP
The European Union reached an outline agreement on Friday to impose the first economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March and suspicions that it is actively involved in destablising eastern Ukraine.
The 28-nation EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Russian intelligence chiefs and other officials accused of undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty.
One official added to the list, Alexander Tkachyov, the governor of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, said he had no regrets about any action he had taken. He said the West was “settling scores” for the success of the Winter Olympics at Sochi in his region in February.
“I have no regrets because of the sanctions,” Tkachyov said on Twitter. “Even if I had known about this beforehand, I would do what I did.”
Grieving relatives at MH17 site as Dutch, Australia ready troops
AFP
July 27, 2014, 5:37 am
Grabove (Ukraine) (AFP) - The first relatives of victims on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrived on Saturday at the crash site, as Dutch and Australian forces prepared for possible deployment to secure the location in rebel-held east Ukraine.
A truce has been called in the immediate area around the site by both the Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists, but combat was raging just 60 kilometres (35 miles) away, with loud explosions heard at regular intervals in western and northern suburbs of rebel stronghold Donetsk.
Ignoring safety warnings, an Australian couple travelled to the scene of the crash without any escort, saying they were fulfilling a promise to their only child that they would be there.
"She was full of life," said Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski of their 25-year-old daughter Fatima, an aerospace engineering student who died when the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur plane was shot down July 17, killing all 298 people on board.
She and her husband Jerzy Dyczynski, who wore a T-shirt with the words "Fatima: We Love You" were overcome with emotion as they walked among the wreckage and scorched earth, and laid a large bouquet of flowers on part of the debris.
The Dutch government, which is in charge of identifying the remains found at the site, said that forensic experts had confirmed the identity the first victim on Saturday, one of 193 Dutch citizens who had been on board.
An investigation into the downing of flight MH17 has been hampered by the violence plaguing east Ukraine, which claimed at least nine lives in the last 24 hours in insurgent holdout Lugansk.
Dutch experts sought to travel to the site on Saturday but turned back because of safety concerns.
- 'Humanitarian mission' -
The rebels who are accused of shooting down the plane with a missile from Russia have signalled they are only open to allowing a small group of Australian and Dutch officers in.
But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 citizens in the crash, stressed that it is a "humanitarian mission".
"It's the presence of unrecovered remains that makes it more important than ever that an international team be dispatched," he said.
"Others can get involved if they wish in the politics of eastern Europe. Our sole concern is to claim our dead and to bring them home."
Abbott later on Saturday discussed plans with Russian President Vladimir Putin for "an independent and objective international inquiry," the Kremlin said in a statement.
After a few days when little activity was seen, recovery efforts appeared to restart again on Saturday, AFP reporters at the scene said.
The mission may not be imminent in any case as Ukraine's parliament, which needs to formally approve any international deployment, is only due to broach the issue at a session on Thursday.
The Netherlands is planning to send 60 officers and said troops had been consigned to barracks and had leave cancelled ahead of the planned mission.
Australia is sending 190 police along with a small number of its defence forces to the Netherlands in view of the mission.
- 'Second front' -
In Brussels, the European Union punished Russia -- which it accuses of abetting the insurgency by arming the rebels -- with new sanctions on its intelligence chiefs.
Moscow angrily blasted the move as "irresponsible" and warned it put at risk cooperation on security issues.
Ukraine's army meanwhile pressed its offensive to wrest back control of the vital industrial east, with volleys of what appeared to be Grad rocket fire heard all through Saturday.
"We can't sleep at night! There's no electricity, no water, no gas. The houses are burning," said Viktoriya Konovalova, 32, who sat selling apricots by the side of the road in the Oktyabrsky suburb of Donetsk as the booming echoed behind her.
While the fighting raged, politicians in Kiev were battling to limit the fallout from Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's abrupt resignation on Thursday.
Lawmakers are to meet next week to discuss the prime minister's future. President Petro Poroshenko has insisted on Yatsenyuk's cooperation until new elections are held.
The premier quit in fury after several parties walked out of his ruling coalition in what appeared to be the beginning of a rancorous campaign ahead of parliamentary elections this fall.
The Fatherland faction of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko condemned the coalition's collapse, saying it "opens up a second front" as the country battles to quell the eastern insurgency.
In a sign the upheaval in the cash-strapped country is ringing alarm bells, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde rang Poroshenko to remind him of reforms Kiev had pledged to undertake in exchange for its $17-billion two-year financial lifeline.
The IMF had previously forecast that Ukraine's economy would contract by 6.5 percent this year.
The other chief protagonist in the Ukraine conflict -- Russia -- is also widely expected to sink into recession.
Perth-based couple George and Angela Dyczynski, whose daughter Fatima was aboard the plane MH17, visited the crash site. Photo: Reuters
Forensic experts have identified the first of 298 people killed in the MH17 disaster, the Dutch government said, as grieving relatives defied safety concerns to pay an emotional visit to the crash site in eastern Ukraine.
A truce has been called in the immediate area around the site by both the Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists, but combat was raging just 60 kilometres (35 miles) away, with loud explosions heard at regular intervals in western and northern suburbs of rebel stronghold Donetsk.
Ignoring safety warnings, an Australian couple travelled to the scene of the crash without any escort Saturday, saying they were fulfilling a promise to their only child that they would be there.
“She was full of life,” said Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski of their 25-year-old daughter Fatima, an aerospace engineering student who died when the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur plane was shot down July 17, killing all 298 people on board.
She and her husband Jerzy Dyczynski, who wore a T-shirt with the words ”Fatima: We Love You”, were overcome with emotion as they walked among the wreckage and scorched earth, and laid a large bouquet of flowers on part of the debris.
People watch as the convoy of hearses arrives at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum, Netherlands. Photo: EPA
The Dutch government, which is in charge of identifying the remains found at the site, said that forensic experts had confirmed the identity of the first victim on Saturday, one of 193 Dutch citizens who had been on board.
An investigation into the downing of flight MH17 has been hampered by the violence plaguing east Ukraine, which claimed at least nine lives in the last 24 hours in insurgent holdout Lugansk.
Dutch experts sought to travel to the site on Saturday, but turned back because of safety concerns.
The rebels who are accused of shooting down the plane with a missile from Russia have signalled they are only open to allowing a small group of Australian and Dutch officers in.
But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 citizens in the crash, stressed that it was a “humanitarian mission”.
“It’s the presence of unrecovered remains that makes it more important than ever that an international team be dispatched,” he said.
“Others can get involved if they wish in the politics of eastern Europe. Our sole concern is to claim our dead and to bring them home.”
Abbott later on Saturday discussed plans with Russian President Vladimir Putin for “an independent and objective international inquiry”, the Kremlin said in a statement.
After a few days when little activity was seen, recovery efforts appeared to restart again on Saturday, AFP reporters at the scene said.
People watch as the convoy of hearses arrives at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum. Photo: AFP
The mission may not be imminent in any case as Ukraine’s parliament, which needs to formally approve any international deployment, is only due to broach the issue at a session on Thursday.
The Netherlands is planning to send 60 officers, and said troops had been consigned to barracks and had leave cancelled ahead of the planned mission.
Australia is sending 190 police along with a small number of its defence forces to the Netherlands in view of the mission.
In Brussels, the European Union punished Russia -- which it accuses of abetting the insurgency by arming the rebels -- with new sanctions on its intelligence chiefs.
Moscow angrily blasted the move as “irresponsible”, and warned it put at risk cooperation on security issues.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg joined calls on Sunday for Russia to be stripped of the World Cup in 2018 following the MH17 disaster.
The Liberal Democrat leader said sporting events should be part of a new package of EU sanctions against Moscow.
“You can’t have this -- the beautiful game -- marred by the ugly aggression of Russia on the Russian Ukrainian border,” Clegg told the Sunday Times newspaper.
People watch as the convoy of hearses arrives at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum. Photo: AFP
Clegg’s call echoes that of several German politicians earlier this month, although the idea was quickly rejected by football officials.
Ukraine’s army, meanwhile, pressed its offensive to wrest back control of the vital industrial east, with volleys of what appeared to be Grad rocket fire heard all through Saturday.
“We can’t sleep at night! There’s no electricity, no water, no gas. The houses are burning,” said Viktoriya Konovalova, 32, who sat selling apricots by the side of the road in the Oktyabrsky suburb of industrial city Donetsk as the booming echoed behind her.
While the fighting raged, politicians in Kiev were battling to limit the fallout from Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s abrupt resignation on Thursday.
Lawmakers are to meet next week to discuss the prime minister’s future. President Petro Poroshenko has insisted on Yatsenyuk’s cooperation until new elections are held.
The premier quit in fury after several parties walked out of his ruling coalition in what appeared to be the beginning of a rancorous campaign ahead of parliamentary elections later this year.
The Fatherland faction of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko condemned the coalition’s collapse, saying it “opens up a second front” as the country battles to quell the eastern insurgency.
In a sign the upheaval in the cash-strapped country is ringing alarm bells, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde rang Poroshenko to remind him of reforms Kiev pledged to undertake in exchange for its $17-billion two-year financial lifeline.
The IMF previously forecast that Ukraine’s economy would contract by 6.5 percent this year.
The other chief protagonist in the Ukraine conflict -- Russia -- is also widely expected to sink into recession.
Newcastle legend Alan Shearer sends letter to the family of MH17 crash victim
Alan Shearer sent a letter to Liam Sweeney's family
Victim's dad said he was 'humbled' receive letter
Toon legend is the club's all time top goalscorer
By Hamish Mackay
Published: 11:28 EST, 27 July 2014 | Updated: 11:28 EST, 27 July 2014
Alan Shearer has sent a letter to the family of Liam Sweeney, a Newcastle fan who died in the MH17 crash in Ukraine.
The victim's father, Barry Sweeney, said he was 'humbled' by the letter and said he also received condolences from Toon manager Alan Pardew.
Sweeney told the Sunday Sun: 'There was a letter addressed to the family that arrived on Friday,'
Record: Alan Shearer has scored more goals for Newcastle than any other player
'When we opened it the letter said among other things "we come from the same sort of family and we support the same team. These words come from the heart".
'The letter was signed Alan Shearer.
'Alan Pardew has also sent some nice messages to our family and we’re humbled by all the support we’ve received.
'I haven’t been able to thank everyone personally because I’ve spoken to so many people. But I want everyone to know how grateful we are.
'When I go into our local Morrisons where Liam used to work I find myself hugging people who are in tears and not the other way around.
'He was a really well-liked lad and a loyal Toon fan.'
Tribute: A tribute at St James's Park for victims of the MH17 plane crash that took place in Ukraine
Charity: Robbie Savage and Alan Shearer before their race to see who could sit on half Wembley's seats
You will see and be reminded of your fucked up character on my clones avatars and siggies. Hahahaha
