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Britain and America implicate Russia in Flight MH17 missile attack
Both David Cameron and Barack Obama call for Mr Putin to allow the crash site to be 'properly investigated' amid reports separatists were denying investigators access
Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks with journalists in Itamaraty Palace in Brazilia, Photo: AFP/Getty
Britain and America have implicated Russia in the “unspeakable” missile attack
on Flight MH17 as diplomatic relations reached their lowest point since the
Cold War.
Barack Obama, the US president, described the deaths of nearly 300 people as
an “outrage” as he issued a stark warning to Vladimir Putin, his Russian
counterpart, for supporting the separatists who are thought to have fired
the missile.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said it was an “appalling, shocking,
horrific” incident and added that “those responsible must be held to
account”.
Both leaders called for Mr Putin to allow the crash site to be “properly
investigated” amid reports that armed separatists were denying investigators
access.
On a day of fast-moving developments and growing recriminations between the
East and the West:
- Mr Putin was accused of avoiding phone calls from world leaders including Mr
Cameron;
- America was last night considering imposing further sanctions as Mr Obama warned that he was prepared to “increase the costs” to Russia;
- Footage emerged of a Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher being driven into rebel-held Torez in eastern Ukraine just two hours before the crash.
- Video and audio emerged purporting to contain footage of Russian-backed, rebels saying they had mistakenly shot down the jet.
- Mr Putin categorically denied any link to the attack and suggested that Ukraine was partly responsible. “This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace in the country,” he said.
- Britain sent air accident investigators to Ukraine along with specialist police to retrieve and repatriate corpses.
At the White House, Mr Obama suggested that the missile launcher used to shoot down the plane was from Russia, and that those who fired it may have been trained in Russia.
He said: “Nearly 300 innocent lives were taken, men, women, children, infants who had nothing to do with the crisis in Ukraine. Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions.
“A group of separatists can’t shoot down military transport planes without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”
Challenging Mr Putin to stop supplying the arms to the separatists, he said: “The violence that is taking place there is facilitated in large part because of Russian support and they have the ability to move those separatists in a different direction. If Mr Putin makes a decision that we are not going to allow heavy armaments and the flow of fighters into Ukraine across the Ukrainian-Russian border then it will stop.”
Mr Cameron said: “It is an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident that has taken place. We have got to get to the bottom of what happened, and how this happened. If as seems possible this was brought down then those responsible must be held to account. We must lose no time in doing that.”
Sir Kim Darroch, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, chaired an emergency meeting with officials from across Whitehall, including police and representatives from the intelligence agencies, to assess the situation.
A No 10 spokesman said: “While it is too early to be categoric about the cause of the disaster, the growing weight of evidence suggests that MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and that this was fired from near Torez, in territory controlled by the separatists.”
According to reports, a unit of heavily armed rebels has cordoned off a large section of the crash site and is denying access to international investigators.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This investigation must be swift, transparent and credible. Six investigators from the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch will arrive in Kiev tomorrow to provide assistance.”
Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said: “We urge Russia to reflect on the situation it has created, of destabilising a neighbouring country. Let us hear today a clear and unequivocal condemnation from Russia of these armed groups.”
end quote from:
Britain and America implicate Russia in Flight MH17 missile attack
- America was last night considering imposing further sanctions as Mr Obama warned that he was prepared to “increase the costs” to Russia;
- Footage emerged of a Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher being driven into rebel-held Torez in eastern Ukraine just two hours before the crash.
- Video and audio emerged purporting to contain footage of Russian-backed, rebels saying they had mistakenly shot down the jet.
- Mr Putin categorically denied any link to the attack and suggested that Ukraine was partly responsible. “This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace in the country,” he said.
- Britain sent air accident investigators to Ukraine along with specialist police to retrieve and repatriate corpses.
At the White House, Mr Obama suggested that the missile launcher used to shoot down the plane was from Russia, and that those who fired it may have been trained in Russia.
He said: “Nearly 300 innocent lives were taken, men, women, children, infants who had nothing to do with the crisis in Ukraine. Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions.
“A group of separatists can’t shoot down military transport planes without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”
Challenging Mr Putin to stop supplying the arms to the separatists, he said: “The violence that is taking place there is facilitated in large part because of Russian support and they have the ability to move those separatists in a different direction. If Mr Putin makes a decision that we are not going to allow heavy armaments and the flow of fighters into Ukraine across the Ukrainian-Russian border then it will stop.”
Mr Cameron said: “It is an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident that has taken place. We have got to get to the bottom of what happened, and how this happened. If as seems possible this was brought down then those responsible must be held to account. We must lose no time in doing that.”
Sir Kim Darroch, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, chaired an emergency meeting with officials from across Whitehall, including police and representatives from the intelligence agencies, to assess the situation.
A No 10 spokesman said: “While it is too early to be categoric about the cause of the disaster, the growing weight of evidence suggests that MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and that this was fired from near Torez, in territory controlled by the separatists.”
According to reports, a unit of heavily armed rebels has cordoned off a large section of the crash site and is denying access to international investigators.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This investigation must be swift, transparent and credible. Six investigators from the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch will arrive in Kiev tomorrow to provide assistance.”
Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said: “We urge Russia to reflect on the situation it has created, of destabilising a neighbouring country. Let us hear today a clear and unequivocal condemnation from Russia of these armed groups.”
end quote from:
Britain and America implicate Russia in Flight MH17 missile attack
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