Malaysian jet shot down over Ukraine war zone, killing all on board

A Malaysian Airlines commercial jet was shot down on July 17 in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, 50 km from the Russian border, killing all 298 people on board, including 15 crew members. The jet, which departed Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur, was flying over a conflict zone in which pro-Russian separatists alongside Russian mercenaries are fighting against Ukrainian forces. The weapon used was a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft system, reported on his Facebook page Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Internal Affairs Ministry. “This morning local patriots recorded the location of this system,” he wrote.

“This isn’t an incident, a catastrophe but a terrorist act,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reported on his Twitter page, blaming the incident on the pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry stated its forces had never used an anti-aircraft system during its anti-terrorist operation that was launched in April. Moreover, the jet was beyond the attack zone of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ anti-aircraft defense, at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, the ministry’s press service reported. Serhiy Taruta, the governor of the Donetsk region, said separatists were preventing Ukrainian law enforcement and rescue authorities from accessing the crash site. “This may seriously affect the course of the investigation and the explanation of the true reasons for this tragedy and its scope,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a July 17 meeting of an economic council that the Ukrainian government is responsible for the tragedy. “Undoubtedly, the state over whose territory this happened is responsible for this horrible tragedy,” he said. “This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace on the land, or at least, if there weren’t renewed military actions in southeastern Ukraine.” He ordered military bodies to investigate the crime and establish an objective picture of what happened.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen issued a statement stating much is unclear about the circumstances of the crash. “However, the instability in the region, caused by Russian-backed separatists, has created an increasingly dangerous situation,” the statement said. He called for a full international investigation to establish the facts and bring those responsible to justice. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the separatists have agreed to allow international experts investigate the crash site. The British government called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the Associated Press reported.

Zenon Zawada: The attack has already roiled the Asian markets, a wave which should hit Europe this morning. Today’s events are likely to feature a propaganda war between Russia and Ukraine. We expect the attack will only strengthen the resolve of Western leaders to use their levers of influence to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible, give that it has begun to harm people beyond Russia and Ukraine. It’s not yet clear if that will mean bolstering support for the Ukrainian government in fighting the pro-Russian separatists, or appeasing Putin’s demands for federalizing the southeastern regions of Ukraine. It’s the hope of the leaders of states on Russia’s border that the West will realize appeasement now will likely lead to further Russian aggression in the future.