"I can't comment on who is in control here...", OSCE observer #MH17 pic.twitter.com/ePo5uwoMIA
— Mircea Barbu (@mirceabarbu) July 22, 2014
Putin: Russia needs to protect itself from NATO, prowling around eastern Europe
— Neil MacFarquhar (@NeilMacFarquhar) July 22, 2014
Absolutley unreal!! #OSCE team wasn't aware thar there's a nearby site (cockpit), one I& other journos have been to ages ago. WoW!!! #MH17
— Mircea Barbu (@mirceabarbu) July 22, 2014
EU foreign ministers have still not agreed on #Ukraine conclusions. will continue to draft them after lunch which starts now. #Russia
— Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) July 22, 2014
RFE/RL's news desk has issued this item on a NATO meeting in Warsaw today:
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski says "the Russia-Ukraine conflict is Europe's most important security challenge since the end of the Cold War."
Komorowski said that what is at stake in the conflict is "not only the survival of a sovereign and democratic Ukrainian state, but also the credibility of the European order based on the principles of respect for territorial integrity and nonuse of force -- and the threat of force -- in international relations."
Speaking at a meeting of NATO countries from Central and Eastern Europe, he said strengthening the alliance's eastern flank is "fundamental."
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania met today in Warsaw to discuss the fallout from the Ukraine crisis and Russia's annexation of Crimea in March.
(AFP, rp.pl)
Here is satellite trajectory of #FlightMH17 and the missile US says shot it down. @NatSecCNN @cnnbrk pic.twitter.com/ijsUM1nCjZ
— Barbara Starr (@barbarastarrcnn) July 22, 2014
According to our news desk, the bodies in Kharkiv should start arriving in the Netherlands by tomorrow:
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the first bodies from the Malaysian airliner downed in eastern Ukraine will be flown to the Netherlands on July 23.
Ukrainian and Western officials say there is mounting evidence that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists on July 17.
Of the 298 people killed in the disaster, 193 were Dutch.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine say more than 200 bodies were brought on July 22 from rebel-controlled territory to Kharkiv -- which is controlled by the government.
The Netherlands will be in charge of identifying the victims, which Rutte said could take months.
He added that, at Ukraine's request, the Netherlands would lead an investigation into the cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, the OSCE said its observer mission in Ukraine -- which expires in September -- will be extended by six months.
(Reuters, AFP)
"Our banks facilitate Putin's criminal regime. They steal it; we fence it." @OliverBullough in hard-hitting WSJ op-ed http://t.co/7YtLmE92zs
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) July 22, 2014
Here's some more on that Shaktar Donetsk story from our news desk:
Six South American soccer players have refused to return to their club in the troubled Ukrainian city of Donetsk, citing security risks.
The players remained in France following a game by their club, Shaktar Donetsk, against Lyon yesterday in France.
Shakhtar is scheduled to play against Dynamo Kyiv tomorrow in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Shakhtar's billionaire owner, Rinat Akhmetov, has warned that the club will take legal action against the players if they don't return to Ukraine.
Akhmetov said breaching their contracts could cost the players "tens of millions of euros."
The missing players are Douglas Costa, Alex Teixeira, Ismaily, Fred, and Dentinho from Brazil, and Argentina's Facundo Ferreira.
Costa said online that the players "all run a deadly risk if we are in the region."
Donetsk is mainly controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
(AP, AFP, and Reuters)
An emotional speech by the Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans at the UN Security Council Meeting on Ukraine yesterday.