The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists are pointing fingers at one another over who was responsible for the takedown of Malaysia Flight MH17 approximately 35 miles from the Russian border. As more evidence continues to be uncovered, there will be no more hiding from the truth.
On Friday the separatist rebels said they'd found "most" of the plane's recording devices. It was reported they also have possession of the plane's black box. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the country does not plan to get involved and take the evidence from the rebels. However, Ukraine's security service managed to intercept two phone conversations that are believed to be between the pro-Russian rebels who were apparently discussing shooting down a plane. Although neither recording could be independently verified, it was reported that separatist leader Igor Girkin posted on Facebook about downing a transport plane, but the post was deleted after it was discovered to be a passenger aircraft.
Social media has been playing a key role in the dissemination of important information. After the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported the plane crash early on Thursday, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, wrote on his Facebook page that the plane was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which the rebels denied possession of. However, Associated Press journalists reported seeing similar weapons in the region early on Thursday before the crash.
Gerashchenko also continued to post on his Facebook page, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putting "generously supplied" the rebels with the Buk missiles, but Putin said the incident was Ukraine's responsibility due to the fact that the ongoing conflict is taking place in their country. He did not address the question of who may have shot it down and didn't accuse Ukraine of having any involvement.
"This tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on this land, if the military actions had not been renewed in southeast Ukraine," said Putin in this Fox News article. "And, certainly, the state over whose territory this occurred bears responsibility for this awful tragedy."
However, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes differently. On Thursday after the incident he tweeted, "MH-17 is not an incident or a catastrophe, it is a terrorist attack." He also retweeted a number of pictures from the wreckage. President Obama assured Poroshenko that U.S. experts will offer any assistance that is needed regarding the investigation, as the United States wants to know more information about the crash.
Hillary Clinton also responded by openly criticizing Putin this morning when she said, "Put [Vladimir] Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by." Putin offered his condolences to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte this morning as well after speaking with him on the phone, but the issue is far from settled. More countries are set to get involved and take a stance on the incident, so Putin better hope more unfavorable evidence isn't uncovered that would indicate Russia's involvement.
Read more about the Malaysia Flight MH17 crash in this New York Times article.
