U.S. implicates Russia in attack
‘unspeakable’ act
America implicated Russia in the “unspeakable” missile attack on Flight MH17 as diplomatic relations reached their lowest point since the Cold War.
President Barack Obama described the deaths of nearly 300 people as an “outrage” as he issued a stark warning to Russian president Vladimir Putin for supporting the separatists who are thought to have fired the missile.
America was Friday night considering imposing further sanctions as Mr. Obama warned that he was prepared to “increase the costs” to Russia.
Mr. Obama suggested that the missile launcher used to shoot down the plane was from Russia and that those who fired the missile may have been trained in Russia.
“Nearly 300 innocent lives were taken, men, women, children, infants who had nothing to do with the crisis in Ukraine,” he said. “Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions.
“A group of separatists can’t shoot down military transport planes without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”
Challenging Mr. Putin to stop supplying the arms to the separatists, he said: “The violence that is taking place there is facilitated in large part because of Russian support and they have the ability to move those separatists in a different direction. If Mr. Putin makes a decision that we are not going to allow heavy armaments and the flow of fighters into Ukraine across the Ukrainian-Russian border then it will stop.”
And on Friday, the U.S. ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the council. “This war can be ended. Russia can end this war and Russia must end this war.”
Mr. Putin, speaking at an appearance with church leaders near Moscow, did not address allegations of helping separatists or supplying them weapons. He categorically denied any link to the attack and suggested that Ukraine was partly responsible. “This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace in the country,” he said.
But, like Mr. Obama later, he did call for an immediate end to fighting in Ukraine.
“Direct contacts between all conflicting sides should be immediately established, all sides in the conflict must immediately stop military actions and start peace negotiations,” he said.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, said the shooting down of MH17 was an “appalling, shocking, horrific” inci- dent. He called on Mr. Putin to allow the crash site to be “properly investigated” amid reports that armed separatists were denying investigators access.
Earlier in the day, separatists said they had found the black box recorders of the plane, but then denied they had them.
“Evidence must not be tampered with,” Mr. Obama said. “Investigators need to access the crash site.”
Two senior U.S. Defense Department officials said Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that an SA-11 missile (also called a Buk missile) had downed the plane after being fired from an area near the Russian border.
The conclusion was based on an analysis of the launch plume and trajectory of the missile, as detected by a U.S. military spy satellite. The U.S. analysis did not pinpoint the precise origin of the missile launch or who
This wasn’t ours. Why would we do this? We’re not animals
launched the missile. But a senior Defense Department official said the Americans believed the missile had been launched “from several kilometres inside the Ukrainian border.”
There was still no indication of motive, though most U.S. analysts concluded that the missile operators must have believed they were firing at a Ukrainian military plane, not a civilian jetliner.
At the scene of the crash, four rebels in fatigues looked incredulous when asked who was responsible.
“This wasn’t ours,” said a rebel who identified himself only as Alexei. “Why would we do this? We’re not animals.”
“This is direct provocation of the EU and the U.S.,” said a rebel, Alexander Nikolaevich. “You see our weapons,” he said pointing to his aging gun. “We started to win the war and the fascists did this to stop us.”