Grim fields of SLAUGHTER
As the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 lay in the countryside of east Ukraine, more evidence emerged that pointed to the rebels firing the missile that brought down the Boeing 777.
BODIES AMONG THE WHEAT
They lie among the sunbleached wheat, The bodies. Torn. Broken. Burnt. Some are like manikins; twisted, turned and rearranged, their joints bent at impossible angles, their skin like dull yellow plastic. There is no easy way to describe the final, scattered resting place of flight MH17. It is a scene of horrors which stretches over many acres of eastern Ukraine, testimony to a plane being ripped up by a missile, then falling nine kilometres to Earth. One woman’s body is unimaginably scarred, but the red paint on her toenails is still smooth and unchipped and the skin of her one remaining foot has retained its lifelike lustre. The blond hair of another passenger is in perfect condition, but her body has been split and torn. A young boy’s corpse is nearby. His white Tommy Hilfiger shirt is still clean, marked only by the blood near his head and shoulder. His face is well preserved with a strong brow and dark straight hair. But he has suffered a traumatic head wound. Among the debris, the banal seems to be as striking as the death. There is an “I Love Amsterdam” T-shirt, a souvenir Paris picture frame, toiletries, food and clothes. All seemed so fundamentally human, and yet so far removed from the bodies scattered around.
‘ JUST SHOT DOWN A PLANE’
The SBU, the security service of Ukraine, released recordings of two alleged intercepted phone calls between Russian military intelligence officers and suspected pro-Russian rebels. The SBU says the recordings show the rebels were responsible for shooting down MH17. In the first recording Igor Bezler, whom the SBU claims is a Russian military intelligence officer and leading commander of the selfproclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, is talking with Vasili Geranin, an alleged Russian intelligent agent. “We have just shot down a plane. Group Minerva. It fell down beyond Yenakievo,” says Mr. Bezler in a translation by the Kyiv Post. The SBU says that 40 minutes later they intercepted another call between two rebels called Major and Greek.
Major In short, it was 100% a passenger aircraft. Greek Are many people there? Major Holy s***! The debris fell right into the yards [of homes]. Greek What kind of aircraft? Major: I haven’t ascertained this. I haven’t been to the main site. I am only surveying the scene where the first bodies fell. There are the remains of internal brackets, seats and bodies.
Greek Is there anything left of the weapon?
Major Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medicinal stuff, towels, toilet paper.
BLACK BOXES
European Union officials said Friday that Ukraine has first claim on the plane’s two black boxes — a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder. An assistant to the insurgency’s military commander said Friday that rebels had recovered multiple devices from the wreckage and were considering what to do with them, raising fears they could be headed to Moscow. But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no intention of getting hold of the boxes, and insurgent leader Aleksandr Borodai later contradicted his colleague and said the rebels don’t have them anyway.
MISSING MISSILE
Ukraine says the Buk missile launcher used to shoot down MH17 has been spirited out of the country. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released video purporting to show a truck carrying a Buk missile launcher with one of its four missiles apparently missing, rolling toward the Russian border. The ministry said the footage was captured by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday. There was no way to independently verify that claim. Charles Heyman, editor of Armed Forces of the EU, said missile casings could help establish who had supplied the weapons that brought down the plane. But he said it was likely that the rebels — if they fired the missile — would have removed any missile-casing debris from the scene. Mr. Heyman said the missile launcher would bear ID numbers that could establish whether it was recently supplied by Russia or came from Ukrainian forces. But he said if rebels mistakenly targeted a commercial airliner, thinking it was a Ukrainian military plane, they may have fled and taken the missile launcher into Russia. “If I was the rebel chief of staff, I’d have had it taken away, dismantled and blown up,” Mr. Heyman said, “and then bury the pieces in a swamp.”