As some have noted, the separatist commander who said the rebels had the missile system believed to have shot down MH17 is from Ukraine, so may feel able to speak more freely. And that he has slammed other rebel groups in the past:
A Russian soldier supposedly brags on social media of "shelling Ukraine all night" from inside Russia:
A BBC correspondent chimes in on Khodakovsky story:
This ends our live-blogging on the crisis in Ukraine for July 23, be sure to check back in tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Good morning. Here is our early news wrap on Ukraine and the aftermath of MH17:
More bodies of victims of the Malaysian jetliner shot down over Ukraine are expected to be flown to Netherlands on July 24, after the return of the first 40 bodies in a solemn ceremony.
The bodies arrived in two military planes in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven on July 23.
They were met by some 1,000 relatives of the victims, Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and representatives of the other nations that lost citizens on the flight.
Flags of the 11 nations that lost citizens to the crash flew half-mast at the airport, and a minute's silence was observed across the country.
The bodies were then driven in 40 identical hearses to the central city of Hilversum where forensic experts were waiting at a military barracks to carry out the task of identifying the remains.
Netherlands held a day of mourning for the victims, 193 of whom were Dutch. Flags flew at half-staff on Dutch government buildings and family homes around the nation of 17 million.
Motorways along the 100-kilometer route were closed for the long convoy to pass, with crowds gathering on bridges overhead to throw flowers at the hearses.
Some 74 more bodies are due to arrive in the Netherlands on July 24.
All 298 passengers and crew were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was downed on July 17.
Dutch officials have said a refrigerated train brought some 200 bodies to Kharkiv on July 22 after the separatists allowed them to be transported to the government-controlled city.
Rebel leader Aleksandr Borodai, in an interview with the BBC, denied that his group had neglected the bodies of the crash victims.
Borodai said on July 23 that he had wanted to remove the bodies immediately, but was told to leave the them in order to allow an investigation by international monitors.
The British government meanwhile confimed the plane's two flight-data recorders have been delivered to British investigators for expert analysis.
The separatists handed over the black-box recorders after stalling for days.
Dutch investigators said on July 23 they have no evidence the airliner's black box voice recorder had been tampered with.
The Dutch Safety Board said the voice recorder "was damaged but the part that contains the data was intact," and that there was not "any evidence or indication" that it had been manipulated.
International investigators have accused the separatists of tampering with the evidence.
Reports said some parts of the plane have been moved with heavy equipment and other parts have been cut into pieces.
U.S. officials on July 22 said the Malaysian jet was likely downed by the separatists "by mistake."
The officials said no direct link to Russia has been found.
The officials said the plane was likely downed by a surface-to-air missile fire by the rebels.
While saying there was so far no link to the Kremlin, the officials said Russia had "created the conditions" for the downing of the plane.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's military said two Ukrainian warplanes were shot down on July 23, just 35 kilometers from the Malaysian plane crash site. The military said the two war planes had been hit by missiles fired from the territory of Russia.
State Department Deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said that, if true, the report "would only be further evidence that Russian-backed separatists are using advanced surface-to-air weaponry" provided by Moscow.
From ITAR-TASS:
Ukrainian servicewoman Savchenko implicated in death of reporters -
MOSCOW, July 24 (Itar-Tass) - An official of Russia's Investigative
Committee has said that the implication of Ukrainian military servicewoman
Nadezhda Savchenko in the death of journalists of VGTRK (All-Russia State
Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) Igor Kornelyuk and Anton
Voloshin has been confirmed. Savchenko is currently kept in a detention
facility in the city of Voronezh in Central Russia.
Russia officially denies Kyiv's claims that it brought down two military planes yesterday:
Russia's Defense Ministry has denied Kyiv's claims that missiles that brought down two Ukrainian military planes may have been fired from Russia.
Ukraine's National Security Council in a statement said that two Su-25 military planes were shot down in the eastern Donetsk region on July 23.
It said the planes were hit by missiles fired from Russian territory.
An unnamed Russian Defense Ministry official cited by Interfax on July 24 said "In an attempt to mislead the public, to distract attention from the Malaysian Boeing 777 catastrophe, the fantasies of Kyiv's authorities deserve inclusion in the Red Book of military aphorisms."
The U.S. State Department has said that, if true, the Ukrainian report "would only be further evidence that Russian-backed separatists are using advanced surface-to-air weaponry" provided by Moscow.