July 24, 2014

Fighting between separatist rebels and the Ukrainian military continues in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, Ukrainian officials in Kiev, the capital, confirmed that two more military jets were shot down over eastern Ukraine. (Two other Ukrainian military aircraft were downed on July 15 and 16.) Ukraine’s Security Council asserted that the missiles that brought down the latest fighter jets were fired from Russia: “Two of our jets were hit at an altitude of 5,200 meters [17,000 feet]. According to preliminary information, the missiles were launched from the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Yesterday, two planes carrying bodies from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17–shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17–landed in the Netherlands where a day of mourning for the 298 victims had been declared. The planes were met by the Dutch royal family, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and hundreds of members of the victims’ families. Flight 17 was allegedly shot down by Ukrainian separatists using a Russian missile system. More than 190 of the victims were Dutch.

On July 22, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama released satellite images and intelligence reports that CIA analysts say show that Russia had trained and equipped the Ukrainian rebels responsible for the downing of Flight 17. The satellite images reveal a sprawling Russian military installation near the Russian city of Rostov as the main conduit of Russian support to separatists in Ukraine. According to the analysts, the base is both a training hub and a weapons depot from which tanks, rocket launchers, and other arms have continued to flow into Ukraine even after the downing of Flight 17. Before-and-after slides show a substantial buildup on the base after Russian President Vladimir Putin had pledged to pull back from Ukraine.