July 17, 2015

Today is the one-year anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Commemorative services are being held in Australia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine for the 298 people killed on July 17, 2014, when their plane was shot down in a war zone over eastern Ukraine. Of the passengers who died, nearly 200 were Dutch (the plane had taken off from Amsterdam), and nearly 40 were Australian.

Beginning in early 2014, Ukraine’s Western-backed central government and eastern separatists allied with Russia were in an armed conflict. Separatists had threatened Ukrainian planes that flew over the air space they considered to be theirs. In the week before MH17 was shot down, separatists had used missiles to attack Ukrainian military jets. Almost immediately after MH17 was downed,  social media accounts linked to the rebels showed posts claiming they had shot down a Ukrainian plane. These posts were quickly deleted.

Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 19, 2014. Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels of destroying evidence of “international crimes” from the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner.
Credit: © Maxim Zmeyev, Reuters/Landov

Within days of the incident, American intelligence officials blamed pro-Russian separatists for downing the plane with advanced antiaircraft missiles supplied by Russia. Most international experts now feel the evidence does point in that direction. Russia and the separatists deny attacking the plane. Originally, Russia claimed that the Ukrainian government had fired missiles downing the plane. Later, Russia claimed that a Ukrainian military jet was responsible. However, the satellite images that supported both of these claims were publicly shown to have been doctored. 

It has been difficult for family members of those who died on Flight MH17 to obtain justice for their loved ones. In the initial days following the crash, Russian separatists refused to allow investigators into the site. Consequently, the crime site was never handled properly.

This week, the government of Malaysia requested that the United Nations (UN) form an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for shooting MH17 down. Australia supported this request. However, Russia is a permanent member of the UN security council, and the nation’s veto blocks proposals with which it disagrees.

Other World Book articles: 

• Aviation (2014-a Back in time article)
• Malaysia (2014-a Back in time article)
• Ukraine (2014-a Back in time article)

August 28, 2014

The Ukrainian government accused Russia today of launching a “full-scale invasion” by sending troops, tanks, and artillery pieces into southeastern Ukraine to support pro-Russian separatists who have been battling the government. A Russian official told one news agency that the claims bear “no relation to reality.” However, in an interview with the BBC, the leader of the main separatist group in southeastern Ukraine said that up to 4,000 Russians, including active-duty soldiers on leave, had been fighting against Ukrainian government forces there.

According to multiple news services, a combined force of Russian and separatist forces had seized the coastal town of Novoazovsk, opening a new southern front, in an attempt to relieve pressure on the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk farther north. In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military, supported by its Western allies, has made progress in its efforts to oust pro-Russian forces from those cities and surrounding areas. Novoazovsk, a port city on the Azov Sea, lies on the southeastern tip of Ukraine along the border with Russia. The city sits along a road linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in March.

Also today, NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak told the BBC that there had been a “significant escalation in the level and sophistication of Russia’s military interference in Ukraine” over the past two weeks.” Tak said NATO had detected “large quantities of advanced weapons, including air defence systems, artillery, tanks, and armoured personnel carriers being transferred to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.”

Novoazovsk lies on the sea of Azov, east of Mariupol, at the southeastern tip of Ukraine (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Leaders in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other European countries expressed outrage at the reports and demanded an explanation from Russia. The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for later today.

April 8, 2014

Authorities in Ukraine announced today that Ukrainian forces have wrenched control of a regional administration building in the eastern city of Kharkiv from pro-Russian separatists. They stated that government buildings in Luhansk and Donetsk will be freed shortly as well. The separatists took over the buildings in the three cities yesterday. In Donetsk, they proclaimed the city’s independence as well as their intention to hold a referendum on secession. The separatists asked Russia to be ready to deploy “peacekeeping troops” in the city. (Russia currently has thousands of Russian troops massed along its border with eastern Ukraine.)

Pro-Russian separatists seized government buildings in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk on April 7, igniting another crisis for the interim government in Kiev. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Experts on the crisis in Ukraine describe the current situation as a scenario similar to the one that played out in March when Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea following a referendum of questionable legitimacy. In the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk characterized the events in the east as scripted in Russia: “An anti-Ukrainian plan is being put into operation … under which foreign troops will cross the border and seize the territory of the country,” Yatsenyuk told his Cabinet. “We will not allow this.”

Although the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated it has no intention of invading Ukraine, it claims to have the right to defend ethnic Russians there and warns Ukraine to stop any military preparations. In a statement issued by the Russian foreign ministry, Putin’s government noted that such preparations risk triggering a civil war.

Last week, Russia raised the price of the natural gas it supplies to Ukraine to $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, the second hike in two days. Ukraine owes Russia billions of dollars for natural gas. The deadline for Ukraine to settle the outstanding balance, in full, came and went yesterday. The interim government in Ukraine is under no illusion, knowing that Russia could do what it did in 2009: cut off Ukraine’s supply of gasoline and natural gas—a move that would cripple the country.

For additional information on the Ukrainian revolution, search Ukraine articles under Archived Stories.

Additional World Book article:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a special report)