Dutch experts inspect Ukraine crash bodies

By Marion Thibaut with Stephane Orjollet in Donetsk AFP From Yahoo Nws

Dutch forensic experts on Monday began examining bodies from the MH17 plane disaster that have been held up at a east Ukraine train station as Kiev and insurgents wrangle over the fate of the remains.

As world leaders deplored the “shambolic” state of the crash site left in the hands of the rebels, the animosity between the two sides was underlined by intense shelling rained down in the rebel stronghold Donetsk, a city just 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the station.

Three people were killed and terrified civilians fled, as Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko quickly ordered his troops to hold fire within a 40-kilometre radius around the crash site, where forensic experts were heading.

Kiev said the remains of the 298 victims killed when the Malaysia Airlines flight was apparently shot by a surface-to-air missile Thursday should be transferred to the Netherlands.

Ukraine accused rebels of refusing to release the grisly cargo, while the insurgents said Kiev could not be trusted and that they would only give control over the remains to international experts.

The UN Security Council is expected to adopt an Australia-backed resolution demanding pro-Russian separatists grant unrestricted access to the crash site to international experts when it meets at 1900 GMT on Monday.

Moscow has borne the brunt of international fury, as the United States accused Russia of supplying the missile system used to shoot down the aircraft.

President Vladimir Putin, who has also come under fire for failing to use his influence to get the pro-Russian rebels to give investigators full access to the crash site, sought Sunday to temper the outrage, saying Russia would do “everything in its power” to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.

After speaking with Putin, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 compatriots and nine residents in the crash, noted the Russian leader had “said all the right things” but that he would “hold the president to his word”.

At the Torez station, close to Donetsk, an overpowering stench filled the air as Dutch investigators, wearing masks and headlights, opened each of the train wagons holding the remains of recovered bodies.

“I think the storage of the bodies is (of) good quality,” Peter Van Vliet, the forensic expert leading the Dutch team, said after examining the corpses.

“Now we hope that the train will leave so that we can do the necessary analyses. It is not technically possible here,” he said, as 50 armed insurgents looked on.

Van Vliet said he and his team were escorted by Ukrainian soldiers to a certain point before being handed over to the separatists, and that they would head to the main crash site about 15 kilometres (nine miles) away.

Nearby in Donetsk, insurgent fighters closed off the roads around the airport and train station on the edge of the city as local residents escaped intense shelling in minibuses and on foot.

– Crash site ‘shambolic’ –

A rebel fighter told AFP that government troops had attacked their positions close to the transport hub at around 10:00am (0700 GMT).

“They came within about two kilometres of the station,” insurgent gunman Volodya told AFP.

Four days after the crash, patience was wearing thin over the limited access to the crash site in Grabove, where debris is spread over kilometres and where salvage workers were still combing the vast cornfields for remains of the victims.

“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”.

But that is little comfort for outraged families of the victims.

The anger was palpable in an open letter addressed by Dutch national Hans de Borst, who lost his 17-year-old daughter Elsemiek in the crash.

“Thank you very much Mr Putin, separatist leaders or the Ukrainian government, for murdering my dear and only child,” he wrote in the letter published by Dutch media on Monday.

“I hope that you’re proud to have destroyed her young life and that you can look yourself in the mirror,” he wrote.

– ‘Russia-supplied missiles’? –

Kiev on Sunday released fresh recordings of what it says are intercepted conversations between rebels conspiring to hide the flight’s black boxes from international monitors.

And the US embassy confirmed as authentic recordings released earlier 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.

European leaders have 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.

For more on this story go to: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-guarantee-safety-crash-monitors-kiev-agrees-truce-064257196.html

MH17 air crash: Recovered bodies put on train

From BBC

The remains of up to 196 people from the MH17 crash in Ukraine have been loaded on to refrigerated rail wagons, to be taken to an unknown destination.

All 298 people on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 died when a missile reportedly hit it on Thursday.

Western countries have criticised pro-Russian rebels controlling the area for restricting access to the crash site.

The rebels say they will hand MH17’s flight recorders to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
line

At the scene: Fergal Keane, BBC News, at the crash site

The indiscipline and chaos of the last two days have been replaced by the robust presence of former riot policemen who now form a cordon around the central area of the crash site.

There is still no sign of the fully fledged independent investigation which is being demanded by the international community.

During the morning local volunteers have been searching the fields. We have been told that their job is to pinpoint belongings and remains to the emergency services. But this could easily have the effect of disturbing evidence important to an inquiry.

As for the strong words from British Prime Minister David Cameron attacking Russia they are likely to have little impact on the rebels here. They are contemptuous of the West and are much more concerned with the local military balance than with any warnings from London.

End
Footage appeared to show one of the plane’s two flight data recorders being recovered

Ukraine’s government and the rebels have accused each other of shooting down the Boeing 777, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The US state department said there had been multiple reports of bodies and aircraft parts being removed, and potential evidence tampered with, by rebels.

Heavy machinery could be seen moving plane debris around at the crash site, AP news agency reported.

Separately, UK broadcaster Sky News apologised after one of its presenters was shown going through items in a suitcase belonging to one of the passengers.
Tagged body bags

Fighting is reportedly continuing in eastern Ukraine between the separatist rebels and government forces in a conflict which erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

In other developments

US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was “pretty clear” Russia had transferred a missile system to the rebels which was allegedly used to down the jet
Ukraine produced what it said was a recording of another intercepted call between rebels (in Russian) saying Moscow had given orders not to hand the “black boxes” to international monitors. The authenticity of the tape could not be confirmed
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said talks were under way with the rebels on letting the train leave rebel territory

The freight train with its five sealed wagons has been standing at Torez railway station, 15km (nine miles) from the crash site.

The carriages, with heavy closed doors, look like refrigeration units and there is the occasional smell normally associated with dead bodies, the BBC’s Richard Galpin reports from Torez.

The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission in the region said in a tweet it had been told that 196 bodies were on the rail wagons in Torez.

An OSCE team was allowed to see three of the wagons and observed “tagged body bags”, without being able to verify the figures. It’s not clear where the train will take the bodies.
line

At the scene: Matthew Price, BBC News, Hilversum, the Netherlands
Note written by a student to a teacher, the Netherlands, 20 July 2014 This message says: “I was really looking forward to the next school year. We will miss you.”

Inside the cathedral church at Hilversum, they wipe the tears away, as the clang of bells echoes off the cold stone walls.

“Three families and one individual were ripped from our community. Thirteen people,” says the deputy mayor.

The names are read out. A copy of the passenger list that the priest has printed off is laid next to a candle lit for the victims. More tears.

A woman arrives. She tells of how when the airline released the passenger manifest she looked through the names, and found out her former boss and her entire family was on board. Again, tears.

Later, outside a school, notes left by children to a teacher. “You were my favourite,” says one.

And in script struggled over by a child just learning to write, a message so simple it is devastating: “Lovely Sandra. It’s a shame you’re dead.”

End

Speaking in Donetsk, the biggest rebel-held city in the east, rebel political leader Alexander Borodai reportedly said the bodies would remain in Torez until international aviation inspectors arrived.

He said they had moved the bodies “out of respect for the families”, adding: “We couldn’t wait any longer because of the heat and also because there are many dogs and wild animals in the zone.”

He also said his forces had brought the plane’s “black boxes” to the city and he was supervising them personally.

Michael Bociurkiw, an OSCE spokesman, told reporters that some of the other bodies from the plane could have been incinerated during the crash, AP said.
Memorials

The passenger list released by Malaysia Airlines shows the plane was carrying 193 Dutch nationals (including one with dual US nationality), 43 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons (including one with dual South African nationality), four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines, and one each from Canada and New Zealand.

Memorial services and vigils have been held in many countries, including Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands.
Mourners attend a memorial service held for a family of five killed in the flight MH17 disaster, Melbourne, 20/07/2014 Mourners in Australia remembered locals who died, and those travelling to the city for an Aids conference
A monk performs a prayer during a special vigil for victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, inside a Buddhist temple in Kuala Lumpur July 20, 2014 In Malaysia, a monk performs a prayer during a special vigil
People sign a book of condolence during a special mass in Saint Vitus church in memory of the victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, in Hilversum, Netherlands, 20 July 2014 A special mass was held in the Netherlands to commemorate victims of the plane crash

In a mark of respect to the dead, Malaysia Airline says it is retiring the MH17 flight number. The airline did the same for MH370, which disappeared in March with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Russia denies any involvement in the downing of the Malaysian plane, and has rejected Western allegations that it is stoking the Ukraine conflict.

For more on this story go to:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28389991

US building case tying separatists to plane crash

From Newsmax

The United States is building a case linking pro-Russian separatists to the shocking downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine.

A somber President Barack Obama declared the deaths of those on board, including at least one American, an “outrage of unspeakable proportions.”

Obama said the U.S. believes the Malaysia Airlines plane was felled by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area near the Ukraine-Russia border that is controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists. Even as he cautioned that the exact circumstances were still being determined, the president turned his sights on Russia, saying the insurgents would not be capable of carrying out such an attack without Moscow’s support.

“We know that they are heavily armed and they are trained, and we know that that’s not an accident,” Obama said. “That is happening because of Russian support.”

The president spoke shortly after Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined preliminary evidence against Russia and the separatists during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Power said separatists were spotted Thursday with an SA-11 anti-aircraft missile at a location close to the site where the plane came down and that they had boasted on social media sites about shooting down a plane, then later deleted those posts.

Power joined Obama in calling for an immediate international investigation, and she warned that the separatists and those supporting them would have “good reason to cover up evidence of their crime.” The U.S. has called for evidence from the crash site to remain in Ukraine until investigators determine who is responsible.

The American killed in the incident was identified as Quinn Lucas Schansman. Officials said they were still working to confirm whether any other U.S. citizens were on board the plane.

For Obama, the downed plane adds new complexity to U.S. efforts to quell the months-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Increasingly stringent economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe, including a new round of penalties announced a day before the plane was shot down, have done little to change Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach.

Obama warned Russia anew on Friday that the U.S. has the capacity to increase the economic pain, but he outlined no specific potential actions. He did say he saw no U.S. military role in the conflict that has stemmed in part from Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

All 298 people aboard the Malaysian plane were killed in Thursday’s incident. The victims included vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists. The passengers came from a dozen countries, spreading the impact of the Ukraine crisis around the globe.

“This certainly will be a wake-up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine — that it is not going to be localized, it is not going to be contained,” Obama said.

The president has spoken with several world leaders since the crash, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. On Friday, he called British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss possible responses to the crisis. He also spoke with Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, whose country lost 27 citizens in the crash.

Obama learned of the plane crash during a phone call Thursday with Putin. On Friday, the president stopped short of blaming Putin for the downing of the plane, but he said the Russian leader could bring the broader conflict to an end.

“He has the most control over that situation, and so far at least he has not exercised it,” the president said.

A U.S. official said all available evidence, including satellite imagery, pointed to the plane being shot down with an SA-11 anti-aircraft missile fired by pro-Russian separatist forces. The official said the U.S. detected three separate events associated with the shootdown: the launching of the missile from the Ukraine side of the border, the missile’s impact with the plane and the plane slamming into the ground.

That official was not authorized to discuss U.S. intelligence matters publicly by name and commented only on condition of anonymity.

Power, during her remarks at the United Nations, said Ukrainian forces as well as the separatists have SA-11 systems in their inventory. However, she said the U.S. was not aware of those systems being in the area of the shooting, and she noted that Ukrainian air defenses have not fired any missiles during the dispute with Russia.

The State Department said the FBI and National Transportation Security Board were each sending at least one agent to Ukraine, and perhaps more later, to assist with the crash investigation.

A command center has been set up at the State Department, where officials from agencies participating in the delegation gathered Friday morning for a briefing from the CIA on the political and military situation.

For more: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/US-United-States-Ukraine-Plane/2014/07/18/id/583646/?ns_mail_uid=64942667&ns_mail_job=1578040_07192014&promo_code=hmlqzlid

Monitors find confusion, hostility at Malaysia Airlines crash site

By Ralph Ellis, Michael Pearson, and Laura Smith-Spark, From CNN

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) — International monitors investigating the Malaysia Airlines crash in eastern Ukraine said Friday the team was not given full access to the site and was greeted with hostility by armed men guarding the scene.

“It basically looks like the biggest crime scene in the world right now, guarded by a bunch of guys in uniform with heavy firepower who are quite inhospitable,” Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe team, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“And there didn’t seem to be anyone really in control, for example. One of our top priorities was to find out what happened to the black boxes. No one was there to answer those questions.”

The 21-member OSCE team arrived at the crash site near Torez in a remote section of eastern Ukraine that’s controlled by pro-Russian militants who are battling the Ukraine government. The identity of the armed men at the site was not clear.

The United States says a surface-to-air missile, possibly fired by the militants, took down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Thursday as the plane traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. All 298 people on board died.

Lack of access worries U.S. officials, including Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, who tweeted: “Monitors should be able to access the crash site of MH17. US is deeply concerned by reports that separatists are denying access.”

Bociurkiw said the group of monitors only got to stay about 75 minutes on the scene. Missiles could be heard in the distance, which made the monitors uneasy, he said.

Bociurkiw said he doesn’t know of any bodies moved from the site, but warned that the integrity of the scene could be compromised. The crash site is in a difficult-to-access area in the country with no electricity.

“The perimeter is not secure whatsoever,” he said. “They seemed to have put some tape up where we were standing. But, otherwise, it’s very easy for anyone, really, to walk in there and tamper with evidence or debris. So a lot of work needs to be done. A lot of professional work, very very quickly.”

Noah Sneider, a freelance journalist who visited the site, told CNN that debris was scattered over about 5 acres on a farm field. He reported seeing some victims still in their airliner seats wearing headphones.

“Especially prominent were headphones and tropical shorts, swimsuits, sandals, things people would take to a beach vacation,” Sneider said.

The FBI is sending two investigators to work on the case, a U.S. law enforcement official said, but the Ukraine government will be in charge of the investigation.

Obama puts focus on Russia

Russia likely bears some of the responsibility for the apparent downing of Flight 17, President Barack Obama indicated Friday.

In the administration’s strongest words yet on the downing of the jet, which left 298 people dead, Obama said rebel fighters couldn’t have operated the surface-to-air missile believed responsible for the shootdown “without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”

He and other U.S. officials stopped short of publicly placing the responsibility on Russia, which has denied any involvement in the destruction of the jetliner.

But a senior defense official told CNN that the “working theory” among U.S. intelligence analysts is that the Russian military supplied the Buk missile system to rebel fighters inside Ukraine.

U.S. officials believe the plane was “likely downed by a surface-to-air missile … operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council.

In his remarks to reporters, Obama said that he did not want to get ahead of the facts of who may have been directly involved in the airliner’s destruction. But he said the United States would work hard to hold accountable those responsible for it.

At least one American on board

Obama confirmed that at least one U.S. citizen was aboard the plane; Quinn Lucas Schansman was a student at International Business School Hogeschool van Amsterdam, according to his Facebook page. A majority of the passengers (at least 173) were Dutch.

“No one can deny the truth that is revealed in the awful images that we all have seen, and the eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out,” Obama said.

He called for an immediate cease-fire in the region and for a “credible international investigation” into what happened.

His comments echoed earlier statements by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, who pointed the finger Friday at pro-Russian rebels.

Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the plane was “likely downed by a surface-to-air missile … operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine.” If pro-Russian separatists are responsible for shooting down the plane with a missile, investigators can’t rule out the possibility that Russia offered help to operate the system, she said.

Power also said Russia should take steps to cool tensions in Ukraine.

“Russia can end this war,” she said. “Russia must end this war.

Evidence

Among the evidence cited by U.S. officials and others for their conclusions was an audio recording released by Ukrainian intelligence officials which purportedly feature pro-Russian rebels and Russian military officers discussing a surface-to-air strike and the crash of a civilian jetliner.

“How are things going there,” a man identified as a Russian intelligence agent asks.

“Well, we are 100% sure that it was a civilian plane,” a man identified as a pro-Russian fighter responds.

“Are there a lot of people?” the Russian officer asks.

The rebel fighter then utters an obscenity and says, “The debris was falling straight into the yards.”

CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of this audio, or other similar recordings.

Also, in a news conference Friday, the chief of Ukraine’s security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, said the Buk missile system that shot down the airliner crossed the border from Russia only “right before” the attack. He didn’t say how investigators know that, however

Ukraine’s Interfax news agency reported claims by an adviser to Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Geraschenko that the launcher, as well as the flight data recorders from MH17, were handed over to Russian agents across the border at a checkpoint in the Luhansk area overnight.

A senior Ukrainian official who spoke to CNN also accused Russia of carrying out a cover-up of its role in the shoot-down.

He cited video showing a Buk launcher being moved towards Russia overnight.

CNN could not independently confirm the claims.

Ukraine’s government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russian rebels.

While Ukrainian officials implicated pro-Russian fighters and their Russian backers for the jetliner’s downing, Moscow argued Ukraine was to blame.

“With regard to the claims raised by Kiev, that it was almost us who did it: In fact I haven’t heard any truthful statements from Kiev over the past few months,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with the state-run Russia 24 TV channel.

European Union leaders agreed this week to expand sanctions against individuals and entities in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, with details to be decided by the end of the month. Expanded U.S. sanctions were also announced in Washington.

Airspace closed

The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced Friday that the airspace over Donetsk, Luhansk and part of Kharkiv where rebels are operating had been closed indefinitely.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai defended the routing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over the region, saying other carriers were sending their aircraft through the same airspace.

Three months ago, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying in areas some way south of where Flight 17 crashed Thursday. Thursday night, the FAA expanded the flight restrictions to all of eastern Ukraine.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/18/world/europe/ukraine-malaysia-airlines-crash/index.html

Malaysia jet crashes in East Ukraine conflict zone

From BBC

A Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 295 people has crashed in east Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

There are no signs of survivors at the scene of the crash near the village of Grabovo, in rebel-held territory close to the border with Russia.

Both sides in Ukraine’s civil conflict accused each other of shooting down the plane with a missile. It is still not clear why the plane came down.

It is the second disaster suffered by Malaysia Airlines this year.

Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Malaysia to China in April and still has not been found.

At a news conference at Schiphol airport, Malaysia Airlines’ European chief Huib Gorter said they were still trying to identify some of the passengers from flight MH17.

He said of the passengers that have been identified there were:

154 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians, 23 Malaysians, 11 Indonesians
Six Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines and one Canadian
All 15 of the crew were Malaysian

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke of his shock and said he was launching an immediate inquiry into the crash.

“This is a tragic day in what has already been a tragic year for Malaysia,” he said.

US and Ukrainian officials said they believed the plane had been brought down by a missile.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said it was an “act of terrorism”.

Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the BBC he had intercepted phone conversations that proved the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the Ukraine government for restarting military operations in the area, where it is trying to regain control from pro-Russian rebels.

“The country in whose airspace this happened bears responsibility for it,” he said.

Separatist leader Alexander Borodai accused the Ukrainian government of downing the airliner.

Ukraine’s defence ministry issued a statement saying there were no air force jets in the area and no surface-to-air systems being used against the rebels.

The British government has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis in Ukraine as a result of the crash.

The plane fell between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.

At least 100 bodies have been found so far at the scene, an emergency services worker told Reuters news agency, with wreckage spread across an area of up to about 15km (nine miles) in diameter.

Broken pieces of the wings were marked with the blue and red paint of Malaysian Airlines.

“I was working in the field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and shots,” a witness called Vladimir told Reuters.

“Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke.”

A separatist rebel from nearby Krasnyi Luch who gave his name as Sergei said: “From my balcony I saw a plane begin to descend from a great height and then heard two explosions.”

The head of the Russian Air Traffic Controllers’ Union, Sergei Kovalyov, told BBC Russian that the airspace over eastern Ukraine had remained open during the conflict because the planes previously shot down had tended to be helicopters or low-flying fast jets.

“In order to bring down an airplane from an altitude of 10,000m, you need to have very serious weapons…. missiles,” he said. “It’s either a mistake or a terrorist act.”

Ukraine has accused Russia’s military of supplying advanced missiles to the rebels.

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials blamed the Russian air force for shooting down one of its ground attack jets on Wednesday, and a transport plane on Monday.

In 2001, Ukraine admitted its military was probably responsible for shooting down a Russian airliner that crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 78 people on board.

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC News
If it does turn out that the Boeing 777 was shot down by the separatists – with weaponry supplied by Moscow – then it could significantly alter the terms of the whole debate surrounding the Ukraine crisis.

Over the past few days there has been growing concern among Western governments that Russia was stepping up its military support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Nato spokesmen insist that more and more heavy military equipment has moved from Russian stockpiles to the separatists across the border.

In response, the United States has strengthened its economic sanctions against Moscow – it is threatening even stronger action – though the European Union has so far failed to follow Washington’s lead.

But if Russia in any way had a hand in this tragedy then the pressure – especially on the Europeans – for much tougher sanctions will only grow

For more on this story and to view video go to:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28354856