BREAKING NEWS - Malaysian airliner crashes on Russian-Ukrainian border

[11B4V]

In celebration of the eminent Russian invasion of Ukraine,

What is it? Six key features will give you the base model and variant.



[spoiler]try w/o googling [/spoiler]

[11B4V]

Extra credit. Hint: It's Russian of course.

Four key features will give you the base model.  One feature will give you the variant

[Syt]

There's been reports in several media here that Putin might be trapped in the conservative-nationalist propaganda machinery that he ticked off early this year with the annexation of the Crimea. It seems, some pundits are calling for a harder stance and more support for the rebels, as well as removing the influence of oligarchs on the Kremlin with a "true renewal" of Russian greatness.

[jimmy olsen]

Well, if there were reports that the plane was full of libertarians, you can hardly blame them.

Unfortunately it was full of Aids researchers and children instead.

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28476153

US says evidence shows Russia fired artillery into Ukraine

The US says it has evidence that Russia has fired artillery across the border targeting Ukrainian military positions.

Russia also intends "to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers" to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, the state department said.

Russia has frequently denied sending any rocket launchers into Ukraine.

The US comment comes a week after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, with the rebels widely accused of shooting it down.

Multinational efforts to find the cause of the crash are under way, led by the Netherlands which lost 193 of its citizens. All 298 people on board the flight died in the crash.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced 40 unarmed military police are being sent to the crash site as part of efforts to find the last MH17 victims.

He said there would be more people working on the crash site and his government was looking at ways to make it more secure.

'Human intelligence'

The US, which has repeatedly accused Russia of fuelling separatist sentiment in eastern Ukraine, says it believes that rebels shot down flight MH17 with a Russian-provided SA-11 Buk surface-to-air missile, probably by mistake.

Leading rebels in eastern Ukraine have given conflicting accounts of whether they had control of a Buk launcher at the time the plane was downed.

State department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters on Thursday the US had evidence derived from "some intelligence information" showing Russia firing artillery into eastern Ukraine.

She said the US would not provide further details so as not to compromise sources and methods of intelligence collection

Earlier on Thursday, the EU said it was adding 15 people and 18 entities to the list of sanctions against Russia and Ukraine, in a move condemned by Russia's ambassador to the UK as "illegal, unreasonable and counterproductive".

It comes as two more planes carrying the remains of some of the passengers and crew of flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands for forensic identification at a barracks south of the Dutch city of Hilversum.
Difficult access

Dutch investigators have faced difficulties gaining access to the rebel-controlled crash site in eastern Ukraine, amid continuing fighting there.

Some OSCE monitors and investigators who did manage to visit the site say there is a discrepancy in the numbers of bodies counted on the ground.

With remains still being found one week on, experts warn it could be months before all victims are identified.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has proposed a multinational force to secure the crash site mounted by countries most affected by the disaster, namely Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, are in Kiev to try to secure agreement from the Ukrainian authorities for a Dutch-led police mission at the crash site.

Meanwhile, UK aviation investigators have managed to successfully extract data from the plane's two black boxes, the Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, said on Thursday.

They are looking for voice recordings of the last moments of the plane's flight, as well as potentially vital information from after any missile strike, which could yield clues about the impact and effect of the strike.

Details of further EU sanctions on Russia and Ukraine are expected to come to light on Friday, with talks on stepped-up action - which may include a ban on buying debt or stock issued by Russia's largest banks - also due to continue.

In other developments on Thursday:

    Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned in protest at the disbanding of the ruling parliamentary coalition, paving the way for new elections. It is not yet clear if his resignation will be accepted by parliament
    CNN says one of its freelance journalists, Anton Skiba, was abducted by armed pro-Russia separatists in Donetsk on Tuesday and has appealed for his release
    Overall rebel military commander Igor Strelkov says in statement he has withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk

The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

[Tamas]

Luckily Europe is just bending down for the soap at the moment, so we are not risking starting WW3 at the 100th anniversary of the first one. I don't think we will manage to wait with it until the 100th anniversary of the second one going at this rate, but hey.

[DGuller]

What's Russia's game with shelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory?  Are they just trying to even the odds, or are they provoking Ukraine into attacking the Russian territory?

[Tamas]

What's Russia's game with shelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory?  Are they just trying to even the odds, or are they provoking Ukraine into attacking the Russian territory?

Who knows. I thought Putin gave up on these guys, then you have news like this. And I am quite sure is true, because the US would not claim to have proof for stuff like this otherwise - I think they would be more than happy to let this issue go away quietly as the Ukrainian army destroys its own cities to get rid of the rebels.

I guess it does depend on how much Putin can still control this fascist uproar he has created in his country. These things tend to slip out of control and then we are going to be in big trouble.

[Malthus]

What's Russia's game with shelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory?  Are they just trying to even the odds, or are they provoking Ukraine into attacking the Russian territory?

I assume it is the national equivalent of a wild west villian making his victim "dance" by shooting at the bar-room floor.

[derspiess]

What's Russia's game with shelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory?  Are they just trying to even the odds, or are they provoking Ukraine into attacking the Russian territory?

Probably.  Ukraine has been firing back & apparently some civilians were hit last week.

[derspiess]

What's Russia's game with shelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory?  Are they just trying to even the odds, or are they provoking Ukraine into attacking the Russian territory?

Who knows. I thought Putin gave up on these guys, then you have news like this. And I am quite sure is true, because the US would not claim to have proof for stuff like this otherwise - I think they would be more than happy to let this issue go away quietly as the Ukrainian army destroys its own cities to get rid of the rebels.

One strategy might be to let the rebels split away after their cities are reduced to rubble. 

[Syt]

Russian media have reported Ukrainian shells hitting Russian territory for a while now, so this might be "retaliation."


Also:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/186efe6c-13e7-11e4-b46f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz38UQWxaOk

Slavyansk's grave reveals Ukraine's wounds

Police are exhuming the bodies of 14 people – 13 men and 1 woman – thought to be victims of the pro-Russian rebels who occupied the city for nearly three months. The site is one of a number of mass graves dotted in and around Slavyansk, a town of 140,000 souls that was until recently the militants' main stronghold and a focal point of the war in eastern Ukraine.

Since rebel forces left Slavyansk earlier this month, normal life has gradually returned. Water, gas and electricity are being restored, and residents who fled the daily bombardments are coming home.

But the mass grave – and the victims within – suggest the war's dark legacy will long endure in this nondescript industrial town, where the population has been left dumbfounded by the violence.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, came from Kiev to watch the bodies being exhumed. Speaking to reporters, he placed the blame for Slavyansk's strife firmly on the shoulders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The people buried here are victims of Putin's terrorism," he said. "If he hadn't armed these rebels, and filled their heads with hatred and propaganda, they wouldn't have killed anyone."

The bodies have not been identified. Authorities say four of them were congregants of a small Protestant church in Slavyansk, abducted by militants after a Sunday morning service on June 8. Police say they were falsely accused of helping the Ukrainian army and shot the following day.

Human rights groups have accused the rebels of systematically kidnapping, beating up and sometimes torturing activists and residents suspected of supporting Kiev. Some are believed to have been summarily executed.

The four Protestant men's bodies ended up in the city morgue. But with Slavyansk's electricity supply knocked out by shelling, and the morgue's refrigeration system broken down, they were later taken out and buried in an unmarked grave near the town's Jewish cemetery, say authorities.

On Thursday, the site was covered with wreaths made out of red and yellow roses, and large photographs of the four dead men – two of whom were sons of the local Protestant pastor. A relative, Nikolai Dombrovsky, stood by, watching the excavation work. "The people who did this were drug addicts, people who never worked, who were full of envy," he said. "They are animals."

Slavyansk is now a city of deep divisions. Though many residents have welcomed the return of Ukrainian rule, others nurture a deep mistrust of Kiev. The resentment that prompted some to take up arms has not gone away.

Many rebel leaders, including Igor Girkin, knows as Strelkov, the self-styled defence minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, are Russian. But many of the rank-and-file were local people. Some have disappeared, others simply took off their military garb and melted into the civilian population.

"I know one man who used to stand on the barricades – he's now selling fish in the market," says Vitaly Kiashko, Slavyansk council's chief architect.

Some are eager to settle scores. Boxes have appeared in public places for local people to drop anonymous denunciations of suspected rebels.

Meanwhile, the city's institutions are being systematically purged of rebel sympathisers. An investigative commission from Kiev is subjecting all Slavyansk's policemen to a lie-detector test, to establish whether they collaborated with the militants.

Igor Rybalchenko, Slavyansk's acting chief of police, said the eight policemen who openly sided with the separatists have disappeared. But there may well be others. "Some of them will be fired, some will be prosecuted," he says.

As law and order is re-established, the full extent of the anarchy that prevailed when Slavyansk was under rebel rule is becoming clear. Mr Rybalchenko's force is receiving 70-90 statements a day from victims of crime. "It's mainly robbery, theft, stolen cars, and damage to property during the shelling," he says.

Mr Kiashko, the architect, says all those fought and killed for the rebel cause must go to prison. "Even those who praised President Putin and gave out leaflets supporting independence for Donetsk should be punished," he says.

"They should be given a shovel, a broom and a wheelbarrow," he says, "and told to clear up the mess they made."

[dps]

In celebration of the eminent Russian invasion of Ukraine,

What is it? Six key features will give you the base model and variant.



[spoiler]try w/o googling [/spoiler]

D'uh.  It's a T-34--it says so right on it, except the silly Russians have the number off by 2.

[Agelastus]

It is interesting that people in Europe just sort of accept the idea that Putin might just assassinate them one day.

Well, we tend to be cautious around umbrellas for a reason, you know?

[Agelastus]

In celebration of the eminent Russian invasion of Ukraine,

What is it? Six key features will give you the base model and variant.



[spoiler]try w/o googling [/spoiler]

T-72M?