October 14, 2015

Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 19, 2014. Credit: © Maxim Zmeyev, Reuters/Landov

On July 17, 2014, a commercial airliner carrying 298 people on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in an area of Ukraine near the border with Russia. That area, Donetsk, was then (and is still) held by pro-Russian separatists. Everyone on Flight MH17 died. Among the dead were 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysians, and 27 Australians.

Yesterday, October 13, the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) released the results of its investigation into the crash. The report stated that the crash was caused by a warhead launched by a Russian-made Buk missile system from the eastern region of Ukraine, an area held by pro-Russian separatists. In order to analyze the crash, the DSB created a reconstruction of the plane built from the shattered pieces recovered from the field in Donetsk. After meticulous study, the DSB ruled out all other possible causes for the crash, and placed the blame solely on the surface-to-air missile.

Since early 2014, Ukraine’s Western-backed central government and the eastern separatists allied with Russia have been in armed conflict. The separatists had made repeated threats against Ukrainian planes flying through air space they considered to be theirs. In the week before MH17 was shot down, separatists had fired missiles on Ukrainian military jets. Almost immediately after MH17 was downed, social media accounts linked to the rebels claimed they had shot down a Ukrainian plane. Those posts were then quickly deleted.

Once it became clear that a commercial airliner had been shot down, and not a military plane, Russia and its allies in eastern Ukraine denied any involvement in the destruction of flight MH17. The Donetsk separatists said they had no Buk missile system despite eyewitness accounts placing one in the launch area pinpointed by the Dutch report. The DSB did not assign blame for who launched the missile, however. The Dutch prosecutor’s office will determine that in a separate criminal investigation.

The DSB report stated that the missile exploded near the plane’s cockpit, ripping away the nose of the plane. A quick loss of cabin pressure would have knocked the passengers unconscious in the brief seconds before the rest of the plane broke apart and fell to the earth.

Other Behind the headline articles

• Malaysian Airliner Shot Down Over Ukraine (July 18, 2014)
• Missiles Down More Military Jets Over Eastern Ukraine (July 24, 2014)
• EU Imposes New Sanction on Russia (July 29, 2015)
• The Downing of MH17, One Year Later (July 17, 2015)

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)

September 25, 2014

United States President Barack Obama, speaking yesterday at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, declared that the Islamic State [of Iraq and Syria] (ISIS) understands only “the language of force” and that the United States will “work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.” “Today, I ask the world to join in this effort . . . for we will not succumb to threats, and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build, not those who destroy.” Referring to recent ISIS atrocities, including beheadings, the president stated that this band of radical Sunni Muslim jihadists has forced “us to look into the heart of darkness.”

Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008 and took office in January 2009. He was reelected in 2012. (The White House)

The president noted, however, that the military campaign against ISIS is only the most urgent of a number of challenges facing the international community: from resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine and eradicating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to forging a unity government in Afghanistan and confronting climate change. The president was particularly blunt in his remarks regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military incursion into Ukraine: “[His] is a vision of the world in which might makes right, a world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another . . .”

A United Nations (UN) General Assembly session brings together delegates from nearly all the world’s nations. The UN works to settle disputes among countries, maintain world peace, and help people better their way of life. (© Mario Tama, Getty Images)

Yesterday’s speech was the culmination of three days of diplomacy personally conducted by President Obama. On September 23, he spoke before more than 120 world leaders during a daylong UN climate summit. Asking for cooperative action on climate change, the president declared that climate change promises to define the next century more dramatically than any other global threat, including terrorism: “No nation is immune . . . We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future that is beyond their capacity to repair.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Joseph Conrad
• Heart of Darkness
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of the Rebellion (a special report)

August 29, 2014

This morning, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen charged Russia with a “blatant violation” of Ukrainian sovereignty. The statement was given by Rasmussen at a news conference held after an emergency meeting of NATO envoys. The meeting, held in Brussels, was called to discuss the deepening military crisis created by Russian military intervention on the side of pro-Russian separatists in southeastern 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.)

According to multiple news services, a combined force of Russian and separatist troops seized the coastal town of Novoazovsk yesterday, opening a new southern front. Leaders from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other European countries expressed outrage at the reports and demanded an explanation from Russia. The new front relieves pressure on the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk farther north. In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military, supported by its Western allies, had made progress in ousting pro-Russian forces from those cities and surrounding areas. Novoazovsk, a port city on the Sea of Azov, 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.

NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak yesterday 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. To back up its claims, NATO produced satellite images with a news release, explaining, “The images, captured in late August, depict Russian self-propelled artillery units moving in a convoy through the Ukrainian countryside and then preparing for action by establishing firing positions in the area of Krasnodon, Ukraine… .”

Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, stated this morning that the nation was revisiting it’s decision on joining NATO. Yatsenyuk was sending a bill to parliament requesting that Ukraine’s non-aligned status be cancelled, which would allow the country to join the Western military alliance.

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.

July 29, 2014

The European Union today adopted new economic sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. The latest sanctions are designed to target Russia’s all-important oil sector as well as limit Russian access to Western defense equipment and sensitive technologies. EU banks are also likely to restrict Russian access to European capital, that is, bar Russia’s biggest state-owned banks from selling stock or long-term debt on European markets.

This latest round of EU sanctions was made in response to the downing of flight Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, which resulted in the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew members. The United States and its European allies have declared that Russian-backed separatist rebels almost certainly shot the plane down with a Russian surface-to-air missile. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to deny charges that Russia is supplying heavy weapons to the separatist rebels.

Heavy fighting between the Ukrainian army and separatist rebels near the city of Donetsk has prevented an international team from investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Intense fighting between the rebels and the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine has kept an international team of investigators from gaining access to the crash site. United States Secretary of State John Kerry said this morning that there has been “no shred of evidence” that Putin is willing to help end the deadly conflict between the Ukraine separatists and the Ukrainian government and warned that further U.S. sanctions are being contemplated in Washington, D.C.

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

Additional World Book articles:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a special report)
• Ukraine 2013 (a Back in Time article)

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.

July 18, 2014

Tension in eastern Europe escalated dramatically yesterday when a Malaysian commercial airliner carrying 298 people crashed in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, crossing Ukrainian airspace at an altitude of around 33,000 feet (10,000 meters). Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had evidence that MH17 had been struck by a ground-to-air missile.

A Malaysian commercial airliner is believed to have been shot down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine yesterday (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.).

The witness accounts of the crash bear out a missile attack. Witnesses state they heard explosions and saw the plane break apart while it was still in the air. Debris and bodies are scattered on the ground over several miles.

Weapons experts noted that the altitude at which flight MH17 was operating seemed to rule out the possibility that the plane had been hit by a missile fired from a hand-held launcher. Such devices have a range of about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Beyond that range, a missile that can shoot a jet out of the air must be much more sophisticated. Military experts felt the most likely candidate for the downing of the Malaysian plane was the Russian SA-11. Such a weapon, however, requires several vehicles for the launch and radar trajectory and highly trained personnel.

Flight MH17 is the third plane this week shot down over eastern Ukraine.  On July 14, a Ukrainian military transport plane flying at 21,000 feet (6,400 meters) was hit by a missile; two of the crew members died. On July 16, pro-Russian separatists (or perhaps Russian armed forces) are believed to have shot down a Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet also flying at a high altitude; the pilot ejected to safety.

All three instances this week led to the conclusion that it was weapons supplied by Russia to pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine that were used to shoot down the Malaysian airliner. U.S. President Barack Obama today stated that the pro-Russian rebels most experts believed to be responsible for the tragedy would be unable to take such an action “without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”

No passengers survived the crash; more than half of the flight’s passengers were from the Netherlands. A number of passengers on the flight were AIDS activists and researchers traveling to a conference on the subject in Melbourne, Australia, including a famous Dutch scientist, AIDS researcher Joep Lange.

Additional World Book articles:

• In Poland, President Obama Affirms U.S. Committment to European Security (Behind the Headlines)
• Ukrainian Forces Attempt to Retake Control in East (Behind the Headlines)

June 27, 2014

Three ex-Soviet states—Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine—signed a trade-pact agreement in Brussels today with the European Union (EU). The pact lifts trade tariffs between the three nations and the EU and also offers EU aid with badly needed economic reforms to the former Soviet nations.

The official flag of the European Union, or EU (World Book illustration).

It was this trade pact that led to Ukraine’s current crisis with Russia. Last November, under great pressure from Russia and Russian president Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the EU trade pact that would have brought Ukraine closer to Europe’s sphere of influence, instead choosing closer economic ties with Russia. His refusal created a political crisis, as thousands of Ukrainians staged protests in the streets of Ukraine’s capital, Kiev. These street protests continued into 2014; when police and protestors clashed in February 2014, more than 100 protestors were killed, and Ukraine’s parliament voted to oust Yanukovych. An interim government was formed. Days later, Russia, claiming it was protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians, began its occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Russia also began aiding pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s interim government held elections, and billionaire Petro Poroshenko was elected president of Ukraine on May 25. On June 20, Poroshenko declared a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Due to expire today, diplomats were working to extend the shaky ceasefire between Ukrainian troops and separatists through Monday, June 30.

Upon signing the trade pact, President Poroshenko exclaimed “What a great day! It is a historic day, the most important day since independence.” Russia’s reaction to Ukraine’s pact with the EU was immediate. Russia threatened Ukraine with extreme trade restrictions. A senior adviser to President Putin referred to President Poroshenko as a “Nazi” and called the signing “illegitimate.” International affairs experts suggested that President Putin’s displeasure with the new agreement has more to do with the psychological blow of having three former states shift away from Russian influence. The trade pact itself will take some time to even begin to change the economic relationships between Russia and its one-time satellites.

Additional World Book articles:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a Special Report)
• Ukraine
• Ukraine (Back in Time 2013)

May 27, 2014

Pro-European candidate Petro Poroshenko was officially declared the winner yesterday in the first presidential elections held in Ukraine since Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February in a popular uprising. Poroshenko took 54 percent of the vote, compared with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s 13.1 percent. Claiming victory, Poroshenko vowed that he would not allow eastern Ukraine to be turned into Somalia–that is, a lawless state overrun by terrorists and pirates: “The antiterrorist operation [in eastern Ukraine] cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours.” A 48-year-old billionaire, Poroshenko declared after Sunday’s election that the majority of Ukrainians had given him a mandate to continue a course of integration with Europe. However, his first priority was to travel to eastern Ukraine to tackle the “war and chaos caused by pro-Russian separatist rebels.”

This morning, Ukraine’s interior ministry reported that the army was once again in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk. An attempt yesterday by pro-Russian separatists to take over the airport was met with army air strikes and an assault by heavily armed troops. A series of bloody clashes left at least 30 rebels dead. A BBC correspondent in Ukraine suggested that the attempt to seize the airport may have been intended to prevent Poroshenko from landing there after he declared his intention of personally going to eastern Ukraine to deal with the uprising.

Pro-Rusian separatists yesterday unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of the airport in Donetsk, the largest city in eastern Ukraine. The attack may have been an effort to keep Ukraine's new president, Petro Poroshenko, from landing there in his attempt to unify the nation. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

International affairs experts noted that the election, which was billed at the most important since Ukraine separated from Russia 23 years ago, went off with a minimum of violence and disturbances at polling places.

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

Additional World Book article:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a special report)
• Ukraine 2013 (a Back in Time article)