A man walks, on July 17, 2014, amongst the wreckages of the malaysian airliner carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
Dear English-speaking audience, your media does not understand why the Boeing777 was shot over Ukrainian territory and what is really happening here.
I am now in Ukraine and I have fresh info directly from the Ukrainian soldiers on the ground. Ukraine is not having civil war between its pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine population. If this conflict were just between Ukrainians it would have been over long time ago, or would not even start, to be more accurate. Not only that pro-Russian separatists are armed by Russia and led by the Russian specialists, such as former FSB officer Strelkov/Girkin, but Russian military is openly participating in fighting on separatists' side - sending men to Ukraine and shelling Ukraine.
As of now, parts of Ukrainian army near the border are encircled by separatists from the West and Russian army from the East. Russian army is firing short-range "Grad" missiles on them. They are screaming for help, since they have no weapons to fight against Russian heavy artillery.
Ukraine's government does not dare to call this a Russia-Ukraine WAR, but calls it an anti-terrorist operation, simply because Ukraine is not strong enough to fight Russia alone. We don't even know how many people Ukraine already lost in this war. Maybe 1000, maybe much more.
Russsian rebel's convoy spotted on 17Jul at 13.30 near Snizhne with Buk surface-to-air missile launcher
Our Western partners - the EU and the USA - left Ukraine to fight on its own for its independence from the Russians, who basically think they are still the USSR and for whom the Cold war has never finished.
The West also avoids calling this war ‘a war’ because it co-exists too comfortably with the Russian dictatorship, relying on energy supplies from Russia and cheering Russian oligarchs who take billions out of Russian economy to spend them in Europe. How can France sell Mistral warships to Russia or how can German companies train the Russian army if Russia is an aggressor, waging war against a sovereign state in the heart of Europe? Of course, it is not a war, just some ‘civil unrest inside Ukraine,’ so Europe prefers to keep its business as usual with Russia.
Moreover, the USA and the United Kingdom guaranteed Ukraine its territorial integrity in exchange for its third largest nuclear weapons arsenal after the collapse of the USSR. Now, when Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula and is fighting to get more of Ukraine’s territory, Western inaction looks bad and sends a dangerous message: international law and international treaties are worthless in today’s world. Better to pretend Ukraine-Russia conflict is not too big of a deal and ignore it.
Yes, Putin is a killer. But those innocent passengers of Boeing 777 paid the price for their political and business leaders indifference and decision to let Russia get away with attacking Ukraine.
I remember a high-level NATO official from France saying that international community should not exaggerate the magnitude of Crimea occupation and possible occupation of mainland Ukraine by Russia because it's just a "Ukraine -Russia conflict". Well, it is not. Russian terrorists are more dangerous than Al-Qaeda because they do not have to be trained how to pilot a plane or how to shoot it down since they are professional military. And those forces are on the loose in Ukraine- the geographical center of Europe. Citizens of the West should blame their leaders for not caring enough about their security. God bless the souls of the innocent victims.
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Olena Tregub, a native of Ukraine, is a journalist living in Washington, D.C.
The Kyiv Post: 18. July 2014
Poroshenko: 'This is a wake-up call for the whole world'
Editor's Note: The following is an English-language transcript of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after a surface-to-air missile fired from Russian-backed insurgent territory in Donetsk Oblast shot down Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight, killing all 298 people aboard.
"Today the war has overspilled from the territory of Ukraine.
Over the past months Ukraine was overwhelmed by the events caused by the aggressors and militaries in the East of the country. But the tragedy which took place in the Ukrainian skies today is horrendous.
Today terrorists killed three hundred people with one shot. Among them innocent children, people of many countries of the world.
Terrorists shot down a civilian Malaysian airlines aircraft, which was on route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at the altitude of 10 thousand meters.
I and all Ukrainians grieve for the hundreds of innocent passengers who sadly have become victims of an aggression against us.
We offer our compassion to the relatives of those passengers and crew who will not see their loved ones again. For weeks we have shed tears over our own dead. We have tears left for the innocent victims of this crime.
Today Ukraine mourns with you.
The State Security Service of Ukraine has intercepted a conversation in which one of the leaders of the mercenaries boasted about bringing down the plane in his reporting to his Russian supervisor, colonel of the General Intelligence Unit of RussiaТs Armed Forces. Other terrorists have also boasted about their success.
In the past couple of days it is the third tragic incident, following two Ukrainian military planes which were shot down.
I have just spoken with President Barack Obama, with Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and Malaysia as countries whose large numbers of citizens lost their lives in this tragedy.
I have ordered the government of Ukraine to create an investigation commission. It will join efforts with the experts of the International Civil Aviation Organization and representatives from the Netherlands, Malaysia and the United States.
Every possible search and rescue will be made. We will do everything possible for the objective international investigation. It is very unfortunate that the terrorists have already declared their desire to hide the evidence and transport the aircraftТs black boxes to Moscow.
Today's tragedy proves again that terrorism is not a local, but a global issue. RussiaТs aggression against Ukraine is not only our problem, but a threat to the European and global security. Addressing this threat requires a unified global response.
By today it is evident that militaries in the east of Ukraine cannot go on alone. Russia more and more often militarily intervenes against Ukraine. Our territory is being fired on from across the border. Our planes are being shot down. Russia supplies military personnel and state of the art weapons. The hybrid war is showing all signs of an external aggression.
In the past couple of weeks, thanks to the courage and heroism of our soldiers, the territory, controlled by the terrorists, bandits and Russian mercenaries has decreased by more than half.
Each and every citizen of Ukraine is fighting for our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Today, the whole world had seen the real face of the aggressor.
Shooting down a civilian aircraft is an act of international terrorism, targeted against the entire world.
This is a wake-up call for the whole world.
We expect for an adequate response from the international community.
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