Drunk With Power



Latest report on events in Ukraine from the BBC including details of intercepted phone conversations which point inexorably towards pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine rebels 'destroy MH17 clues'

An armed man stops traffic near the site of the crash of a Malaysia Airlines plane in rebel-held east Ukraine, on 19 July 2014

The BBC's Richard Galpin describes "horrific scenes in beautiful fields" where MH17 came down

Ukraine has accused pro-Russian militiamen at the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash of trying to destroy evidence of an "international crime".

It said the rebels "led by Russia" were preventing international monitors from carrying out their mission.

An OSCE team is for a second day being prevented by heavily armed men from accessing the wreckage.

The jet was reportedly hit by a missile over a rebel-held area in east Ukraine on Thursday. All 298 people died.

Both Ukraine and the rebels have accused each other of shooting it down.

The Boeing 777 flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It fell between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.

Latest figures released by Malaysia Airlines show the plane was carrying 192 Dutch nationals (including one with dual US citizenship), 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons (including one with dual South African citizenship), four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines, and one each from Canada and New Zealand.

Pressure on Russia

In a statement, the Ukrainian government complained that pro-Russian rebels had removed 38 bodies from the site and taken them to a morgue in the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

The BBC's Richard Galpin, who is at the crash site, says he saw bodies being removed but it was not clear who was taking them or where.

The Ukrainian government statement also said the rebels were trying to transport the plane's wreckage to Russia.
The UN Security Council has called for a full and independent international investigation into the crash

The tragedy has sent shocked the world community

OSCE monitors say pro-Russian gunmen again blocked their access to the wreckage


Analysis: Bridget Kendall, BBC News, Moscow

Both Britain and the US are now publicly pointing the finger at rebels in eastern Ukraine and maybe Russia as well.

Both say they think the Malaysian airliner was probably shot down by a missile fired from rebel-held territory - and perhaps with Russian help.

But turn on Russian TV and you enter a parallel universe, where Kiev, not Moscow, is the likely culprit: speculation that Ukrainian jets may have tailed the airliner before it crashed; colourful theories that maybe Ukrainian forces were really trying to target Putin's Presidential jet and got the wrong plane.

The question is which version is shaping President Putin's thinking. And whose opinion will he bear in mind as he decides how to handle this crisis.


The world community, Ukraine added, must put pressure on Russia to pull back its "terrorists" and allow Ukrainian and international experts to carry out their inquiry.

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong-Lai said it would be "inhumane" if Malaysian experts would not be given access to the crash site.

He also expressed concern that the site was not properly sealed and could be tampered with.
Access to the crash site is being restricted by armed men

The team from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is now at the crash site.

OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said access had improved from Friday and that the monitors were seeing parts of the field they had not seen before.

However he added that their movement were still being restricted by the rebels. "We are unarmed civilians, we are not in the position to argue heavily with people with heavy arms," he said.

On Friday, the observers said the rebels had limited their access, with one gunman firing shots into the air.

'Act of terrorism'

On Saturday the Russian foreign ministry urged both sides in the Ukrainian conflict "to do everything possible to give international experts access to the aircraft crash".

Earlier, the Russian defence ministry accused the West of waging an information war against Moscow. It challenged Ukraine to produce details of what its anti-aircraft systems were doing at the time of the crash.

Confusion remains as to whether the plane's flight recorders - the so-called black boxes - have been found.

After initial claims that they had been located, and one sent to Russia, a Donetsk separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai said they had been not yet been discovered.

Ukraine's government called Thursday's disaster an "act of terrorism" and released what they say are intercepted phone conversations that proved the plane was shot down by separatists.

Ukrainian officials also said they had evidence Russia military personnel operated a sophisticated Buk missile system that is thought to have been used to shoot down the plane.

The pro-Russian separatists claim a Ukrainian air force jet brought down the airliner.



MH17 crash: Ukraine releases alleged intercepts
Recordings purport to show pro-Russian separatists talking about the downing of a civilian plane

Ukrainian authorities have released what they say are intercepted phone conversations between pro-Russian separatists and what appear to be Russian military officers saying that separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

The Ukrainian Security Service put the Russian-language conversations on YouTube within hours of the crash.

The veracity of the recordings cannot be confirmed.

First recording

[Male voice, identified as separatist leader Igor Bezler] The group of the Miner [an alias] has just shot down a plane, which came down just behind Yenakiyevo.

[Col Geranin] Pilots. Where are the pilots?

[Bezler] Gone to search for and photograph the plane. It's smoking.

[Second male voice, identified as Russian military intelligence Colonel Vasily Geranin] How many minutes ago?

[Bezler] About 30 minutes ago.

Second recording

[Male voice, captioned as "The Greek" ] Yes, Major.

[Major] Well, the Chernukhino lads shot down the plane.

[Greek] Who shot it down?

[Major] From the Chernukhino roadblock. The Cossacks at Chernukhino.

[Greek] Yes, Major.

[Major] Well, the plane fell apart in the air, near the Pertropavlovskaya coal mine. The first casualty 200 [military jargon for dead body] has been found. A civilian.

[Greek] Well, what do you have there?

[Major] Basically it was 100% a civilian aircraft.

[Greek] Are many people there?

[Major] [Curses] The debris fell right into backyard.

[Greek] What kind of aircraft?

[Major] I have not figured this out yet because I haven't been close to the main body of the debris. I am only looking where the first bodies began to fall. There are the remnants of inner brackets, chairs and bodies there.

[Greek] I see. Any weaponry there?

[Major] Nothing at all. Civilian things, medical bits and bobs, towels, toilet paper.

[Greek] Any documents?

[Major] Yes. From an Indonesian student. From Thompson University [curses].

Third recording

[Male voice, identified as a fighter] Regarding the plane shot down in the area of Snezhnoye-Torez. It's a civilian one. Fell down near Grabovo. There are lots of corpses of women and children. The Cossacks are out there looking at all this.

They say on TV it's a Ukrainian AN-26 transport plane, but they say it's got Malaysia Airlines written on the plane. What was it doing in Ukrainian territory?

[Male voice, identified as Cossack commander Nikolai Kozitsyn] That means they were carrying spies. They shouldn't be [curses] flying. There is a war going on.

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