18 July 2014

Ukraine 7/18: Russians (or their proxies) Shoot Down Civilian Airliner

The Russians are going into their kabuki dance of obfuscation, but it's obvious that either they pulled the trigger, or their kid-brother lapdogs in Eastern Ukraine did.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Friday blasted the "terrorists" he blamed for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine a day earlier, with 298 people aboard.
He called on all governments to back the investigation and "to support the Ukrainian government to bring to justice all these bastards who committed this international crime."
Since the Malaysia Airlines jet fell from the sky above eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine -- which routinely uses the word "terrorists" to describe pro-Russian separatists -- have traded blame and accusations.
"Terrorists have killed almost 300 persons with one shot," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday. "Among them are women, children, citizens of different countries of the world."Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed the finger back at Ukraine, blaming its recent tough military operations against separatists for the volatility in the region.
Yatsenyuk called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to be held and for all nations to do everything they could to stop what he said was not now just a war in Ukraine or Europe, but a "war against the world."
Meanwhile, international inspectors headed to the crash site Friday to undertake the grim search for the plane's flight data recorders amid the human remains and debris strewn across fields near the town of Torez.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged a cease-fire to allow a swift, independent investigation into what happened, adding that "there are many indications that it was a shot or rocket fired at the plane."

Here's a good list of links of as-it-was-happening news releases, too.

3 comments:

Erich said...

Do you have even the slightest clue about some of the historical complexities re: the relationship between Ukraine and Russia?

Not so long ago, your new friends were busily collaborating with the Nazis and throwing flowers on their panzers.

If you think Russians are the kind of people that forget that kinda thing, you're just another typical 'murrican, easily manipulated by the Company Line coming out of Washington. I guess it feels good for everything to be so darn simple out there. Hey, I'm from Tennessee - I get it.

But lemme tell you, the air smells a whole lot better if you'll pull your head outta your a$$ and maybe read a little. Just saying.

Brant said...

Yep, actually I do. Quite a bit in fact, and getting reports from at least 2 people on the ground there, including one working with the Ukrainian MoD.

And the rebels still shot down the plane.

Erich said...

Sounds like you're certainly getting your info from both sides. After all, there's only one side to every story - if you've got a friend in the Ukrainian MoD, that is.

At least I know where your heavy bias comes from. It's not a leftover cold war grudge. You actually have "friends" on one side of the conflict.

Ask your friend about how much Ukraine gets paid for overflight rights, and why they didn't shut down that airspace. Could it be the $200 million they'd lose as a result?

Letting people fly over a WAR ZONE just because you don't want to deny overfly rights (and thereby make some cash) is wrong. USS Vincennes knocked down an Iranian airline in '88 under far more egregious circumstances, and that was an exceptionally well-trained crew with the entire intelligence apparatus of the USA at its disposal. So, if some rebel guys trying to shoot down what they thought was another bomb-laden SU-25 was an evil act, exactly where does that leave us? We incinerated exactly 290 unarmed Iranian civilians. By your standards, the US is some kind of evil country, and I take issue with that.