Wretched Statement by Ms Clinton On Crash Malaysia Flight 017

20 Comments

1. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:45 am

   Preliminary count 155 Dutch nationals of which approx. 100 were to attend a bi-annual conference on hiv/aids in Australia. One of the world’s leading experts is Joep Lange and a number of specialists from AMC hospital in Amsterdam. All lives lost are equal aa is the sorrow for family and friends. This does compound the sadness in one community of professionals. The Conference will be attended by Bill Clinton and Bono.

   btw the next scheduled flight Malaysian air, same flight number 017 will depart as usual from Schiphol airport. passengers have been informed, an alternate flight route has been planned. multiple passengers had originally booked for yesterday’s flight … very fortunate for them.

2. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:47 am

   ○ Kiev accuses Russia for downing Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet  |  The Guardian  |

   A Ukrainian spokesman, Andrei Lysenko, said in a televised briefing that the pilot of the Sukhoi Su-25 jet was forced to eject from the plane after it was shot at on Wednesday evening. It was the first time Ukraine has directly accused Russia of using air power in the fighting. Russia’s defence ministry denied responsibility for downing the plane, calling the accusation “absurd”.

3. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:48 am

   msm aviation ‘experts’ all seem to remember only the downing of Koream flight kal007 in 1983 and joint us and forget about nato exercises called Able Archer 83 on nuclear brinkmanship between the two nuclear powers.

   what about nato exercise off the coast of ustica, sicily an air-to-air [?] missile downed Itavia Airline’s DC-9 at 10,500 feet. the italians managed a cover-up for decades.

   In september 1993 rebels shot down 3 civilian passenger planes over Georgian airspace.

   Not to mention many instances of high probability a plane was downed in an assassination: Dag Hammarsjkold and Pakistan president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

   More opinions about the incident …
   ○ Moon of Alabama
   ○ Aviation Herald

   • 

     Gaianne on July 18, 2014 at 9:48 pm

     While I have not seen convincing arguments that KAL 007 was itself a spy plane, it ran through a region where the US was actively flying large spy planes.  It may have accidentally followed the flight path of a spy flight, or was deliberately shadowed by one.  This was only a dozen kilometers from Soviet airspace, which it subsequently entered.  

     The US knew KAL was off-course in militarily active airspace but of course did nothing.  Much better to let the Soviets shoot it down by mistake.  

     This was in the same period the US was conducting very threatening war games.  

     –Gaianne  

4. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:51 am

   EU Political Split Deepens Over Ukraine/Russia Tactics

   Decision on successor to Ashton as EU foreign policy chief delayed due to competing candidates in the running for EU’s top positions.

   (NRC.nl) – On policy towards Russia and expansion eastwards into Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states insist on their candidate Neocon hawk Radek Sikorski. The moderate nations support the new Italian FM Federica Mogherini.

   ○ Defense minister, Radek Sikorski, is a card carrying neocon – 2005
   ○ AEI Conference “Ukraine’s Choice: Europe or Russia?” attended by NAI director Sikorski
   ○ New Atlantic Initiative Founded by Neocons
5. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:53 am

   Sources of 9K37 Buk (SA-11 missile) and operational difficulty

   (RT.com) – IHS Jane’s Defense analyst, Nick de Larrinaga, also shared the belief that the self-defense forces lack the capability to bring the Malaysian plane down.

   “At normal cruising altitude a civilian passenger aircraft would be out of the range of the sort of manned portable air (defense) systems that we have seen proliferate in rebel hands in east Ukraine,” he said in a statement.

   But the aircraft would be within range of 9K37 Buk [NATO designation Gadfly, U.S. as SA-11] or other medium-range surface-to-air missile systems, he stressed. “Both Russia and Ukraine have such SAM systems in their inventories,” the expert added.

   It seems unlikely that the self-defense forces could’ve used Buk surface-to-air missile systems to down the Malaysian plane, retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan, the director of the Defense and Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said.

   “It takes a lot of training and a lot of coordination to fire one of these and hit something,” he told CNN. “This is not the kind of weapon a couple of guys are going to pull out of a garage and fire.” According to Ryan, if the plane was really taken down then it was done by a professional military force.

   The Elbe Group: Meetings of Military Minds

   h/t brian | Jul 17, 2014 8:00:11 PM | 114 @MoA

6. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 7:18 am

   Russian export to The Netherlands is due to gas transport from the east and re-distributed. The Dutch had one of the largest gas fields of Slochteren and has the pipeline infrastructure in place for Europe.

   ○ Gazprom and Gasunie ink MOU – 2006

   April 2014 – Amsterdam hosted the annual meetings of the Coordinating Committee for Strategic Cooperation and the Coordination Committee for Sci-Tech Collaboration between Gazprom and Gasunie, chaired by Dmitry Lyugai, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Prospective Development Department of Gazprom and Hans Coenen, Vice President for Corporate Strategy & Portfolio Management, Managing Director of Gasunie Deutschland. [Source: Gazprom]

   Dutch Shell has an excellent working relationship with Russia on their joint projects.

   The Dutch have had warm relationship with Russia dating back to Peter the Great.

   In today’s politics, PM Rutte supports a moderate towards Russia as advocated by Angela Merkel. The Dutch rely on their exports on Germany due to its port in Rotterdam and the Rhine waterway for transport to the Rühr industrial area. The Dutch will likely support Italian FM Federica Mogherini. above Poland’s neocon hawk Radek Sikorski for the position as EU’s foreign policy chief.

   [A few hours ago, I linked to Sikorski’s original article which now appears to have been scrubbed. I will link below the cached version on server of WayBackMachine]

   ○ AEI Conference “Ukraine’s Choice: Europe or Russia?” attended by NAI director Sikorski

7. 

   Higgs Bosons Mate on July 18, 2014 at 8:46 am

   She told Rose that if Russia is held culpable, Europe should look to toughen its own sanctions over its incursion into Ukraine this year and accelerate efforts to break away from its use of Russian energy.

   Meanwhile, she ignores the US’ dependence on energy from the Middle East with all of the deaths that has caused. She also seems untroubled by our continuing acceptance of the apartheid state that is Israel. How about cleaning up our own house before we urge others to do so. WTF kind of foreign policy would she put in place if elected?

   I’ve voted straight Democratic for nearly fifty years. I will not vote for Clinton.

8. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 11:15 am

   Bullying your way into Ukraine, it will be tougher to get any deal done as half of the nation is Russian speaking and there is a strong division.

   Your NY Times article [June 2001] provides excellent reading into the mindset of members U.S. Congress and the world. VP Joe Biden is running foreign policy under Obama, similar to Kissinger under Nixon and Nixon under Eisenhower. Nothing has changed, U.S. policy is incoherent to say it mildly.  

   One of the most clear-cut policy developments came in Mr. Bush’s forward-leaning speech in Warsaw, where he declared that the ”new democracies, from the Baltic to the Black Sea and all that lie between,” should have the same chance to ”join the institutions of Europe.”

   That theme expressed the behind-the-scenes work of a bipartisan group, the United States Committee on NATO, some of whose members now hold senior positions in the administration, including the deputy secretary of defense, Paul D. Wolfowitz, and the deputy national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley.

   I’m truly, truly disappointed you decided to join the pundits, msm, so-called ‘experts’ with an agenda and don’t take the apprehension to wait for facts.

   …
   On the outcome of Mr. Bush’s meetings with other leaders, there was some uncertainty about what would emerge in the longer term.

   ”The objectives were modest,” said Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, who said he sat next to Mr. Bush at a baseball game in Omaha discussing foreign policy just before the trip.

   ”He wanted to lay down a foundation with the other leaders in Europe,” Mr. Hagel said, and he knew that on the most pressing issues of missile defense and the environment he was not going to get instant accommodation. ”Now we will have to see how the leaders in Europe respond on policy.”

   and more …

   The agenda also included press freedoms and Chechnya, two issues of interest to Republicans.

   An earlier Russian proposal to establish two committees of American and Russian experts to discuss offensive and defensive weapons had been replaced by an American proposal to have officials from the State Department and the Pentagon talk to their counterparts about the issues, the official said. It is not clear when those talks would begin.

   Members U.S. Congress press Russia on its war on freedom fighters in Chechnya

   Chechnya: Implications for Russia and the Caucasus [pdf]

   Hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations U.S. Senate – November 4, 1999

   Jesse Helms, North Carolina, Chairman, Richard Lugar, Paul Coverdell, Chuck Hagel, Gordon Smith, Rod Grams, Sam Brownback, Craig Thomas, John Ashcroft, Bill Frist, Joseph Biden Jr., Paul Sarbanes, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Russell Feingold, Paul Wellstone, Barbara Boxer, Robert Torricelli.

   If President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Putin are not in control of this military operation, then the United States should be alarmed about what this means for our stability and our security. If they are in control, then the United States should hold them responsible for the brutality that has been unleashed.

   Moreover, this military campaign is important to understand the state of Russia’s civil society today. Almost a decade since the end of the cold war, why is the campaign against the Chechens, a campaign that has resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent civilians, so popular among the Russian people, that is much more popular than the war in Chechnya between 1994 and 1996? This could be taken as a sign that tolerance and pluralism in Russia are on the decline.

   Local leaders, like the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, have taken steps in the wake of urban bombings tied to narrow radical groups to discriminate against those who look like Chechens, or who look like Muslims. Ethnic hatred seems to be on the rise in Russia.

   Finally, the Russian campaign in Chechnya has implications for the Caucasus in general. Islamic fundamentalism obviously affects the stability of the region as a whole. Yet suppression of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists may be a very convenient pretext for Russia to pursue its designs in the Caucasus.

   I hope today to explore what Russia’s military designs are in that republic, and in the republics of the former Soviet Union to its south. In the Caucasus, the events unfolding in Chechnya are important not just to areas from which refugees are fleeing.

   When Russia masses tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery in Chechnya, neighboring states certainly take note. The visibility of the independence and democratization of nations like Georgia are indeed at stake if Russia’s leaders and military have ambitions throughout the Caucasus similar to those exhibited in Chechnya.

   Malaysia Air has updated the nationality of the victims, 189 Dutch nationals died in the crash in Ukraine. The Netherlands has a good relationship with Russia dating back to Peter the Great and has important trading ties through joint ventures with Gazprom and Dutch Shell.

   PM Rutte just finished his first press conference after he had a phone conversation with President Putin. Although the Dutch newspapers and journals are extremely biased anti-Rusian in its statements and the so-called ‘experts’ they interview on air, Rutte stayed completely neutral. He made clear it serves no purpose to start with accusations where there is little to no evidence. The only indication from the intelligence source, the likelyhood the civilian plane flight ML017 was shot down by a missile launched from the ground.

   Two days ago, the Ukrainian government warned the air space above eastern Ukraine was unsafe. It’s not clear why the official international airline organizations permitted flights over the greater area of Donetsk. It appears the pilot of flight ML017 requested the Ukrainian air control permission to ascent to 36,000 feet. Kiev air control replied this was not necessary.

   Cross-posted from BooMan’s fp story – Into the Wayback Machine: This one is just low-hanging fruit and I can’t help myself..

9. 

   Oui on July 18, 2014 at 4:11 pm

   Full flight history for Malaysia Airlines flight MH17

   On the website flightradar24.com one can find the data of the history of recent Malaysia Air MH17 travels across Europe. Just briefly looking at the data, one can run the recording of each particular flight, its path, speed amd altitude.

   Earliet flights in July, assigned altitude was 33,000 up to central Ukraine and before entering East Ukraine the Malaysia Boeing 777 climbed higher to 35,000 feet! Sometimes as early as passing Kiev, or Dnepropetrovsk or shortly before reaching Donetsk.

   ALTITUDE CHANGE

   On the previous day July 16, the assigned flight altitude was lowered to 31,000 ft and upon reaching Ukraine border was adjusted to 33,000 ft. On the fateful day of Thursday July 17, this same flight pattern with altitude of 31,000 ft changing to 33,000 ft. Coincidental?

   On Dutch news broadcast I heard the request from pilot MH17 to ascent to 35,000 ft was denied by Kiev Air Control.

   • 

     Marie2 on July 18, 2014 at 5:23 pm

     Curious considering that Kiev ATC has been stating that there was a no fly zone from 0 to 320 in eastern Ukraine and then deny a request to climb 3,000 ft above the no-fly zone instead of 1,000 ft.

     Is flightrader reliable enough consider this information valid?  irrc it wasn’t very good wrt to MAH370.

     • 

       Oui on July 19, 2014 at 6:45 pm

       Eurocontrol says flight MH-17 was 1,000 ft above closed airspace

       LONDON (Reuters) – A Malaysian airliner which crashed in Ukraine was flying at 33,000 feet, some 1,000 feet above a closed section of airspace, an agency responsible for co-ordinating European airspace reiterated.

       “According to our information, the aircraft was flying at Flight Level 330 (approximately 10,000 metres/33,000 feet) when it disappeared from the radar,” Brussels-based Eurocontrol said.

       “This route had been closed by the Ukrainian authorities from ground to flight level 320 (approximately 32,000 feet) but was open at the level at which the aircraft was flying.”

       Since the crash, all airspace in eastern Ukraine has been closed up to an unlimited height, the statement said.

       [See my earlier comment the MH-17 flights had been flying at 35,000 ft, starting on July 16 this was lowered to 33,000 ft in appoach to Donetsk region – Oui]

       European Authorities’ Statements on Downing of Malaysia Air Flight 17

       Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation issued a statement regarding MH17:

       Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those on board. According to our information, the aircraft was flying at Flight Level 330 (approximately 10,000 metres/33,000 feet) when it disappeared from the radar. This route had been closed by the Ukrainian authorities from ground to flight level 320 but was open at the level at which the aircraft was flying.

       Since the crash, the Ukrainian authorities have informed Eurocontrol of the closure of routes from the ground to unlimited in Eastern Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk Flight Information Region). All flight plans that are filed using these routes are now being rejected by Eurocontrol. The routes will remain closed until further notice.

       The European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell is being activated to coordinate the response to the impact of the airspace closure.

       FAA releases a new Notice to Airman (NOTAM) on July 18, 2014

   • 

     Marie2 on July 18, 2014 at 5:28 pm

     Are there any reports in non-US media wrt the two Ukrainian military planes that the Ukrainian separatists allegedly shot down?  Locations?  Altitudes? Pictures?  

     • 

       on July 19, 2014 at 2:45 pm

       I’m waiting too. I wonder where Carlos, if Carlos exists, may be staying. Perhaps at a Privy Sektor clubhouse.

       • 

         Marie2 on July 19, 2014 at 5:52 pm

         Interesting that Kiev blamed Russia for the missile/rocket attack last Monday (published pictures of this one exist) and on one of the two SU-25 attacks on Wednesday. (All apparently along the border with Russia.) Presumably because both of those planes had been at a higher altitude than all the other aircraft that the “rebels” have shot down during the past two months.  Then suddenly with the downing of MH-17, the “rebels” had the means to down a plane flying at 33,000 ft.

         Guess I should have been paying attention to all the fighting in eastern Ukraine last week and that Kiev had been pounding the area with bombs.  Enough so that residents of Donetsk were fleeing to Russia.

10. 

    Oui on July 18, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    Sibir Tu-154 Crashed In October 2001

    The Associated Press reports the Moscow-led Interstate Aviation Committee originally determined the plane was unintentionally shot down by a missile fired during Ukranian military exercises on the Crimean Peninsula. The appeals court rejected the families’s appeal of the initial ruling, saying the agency’s findings were unsupported.

    The decision is expected to anger Moscow, which dominates the Aviation Committee made up of 12 ex-Soviet republics. The court did not consider what may have caused the accident, if a missile wasn’t to blame.

    An S-200 surface-to-air missile was fired minutes before the plane crashed… but it wasn’t involved in the accident, according to a lawyer for the Ukranian government. [Specs: range 250 km (160 mi), ceiling 29 km (18 mi), warhead 217kg high explosive fragmentation, speed Mach4]

    Then during the exercise Ukrainian surface-to-air missile S-200 shot down a Russian Tu-154 on the route Tel Aviv – Novosibirsk.  As a result, 78 people were killed – 66 passengers, most of whom are Israeli citizens, and 12 crew members.

    Siberia Airlines Flight 1812

    was shot down by the Ukrainian military over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia. The plane, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried an estimated 66 passengers and 12 crew members. Most of the passengers were Israelis visiting relatives in Russia. No one on board survived.

    The crash site is some 190 km west-southwest of the Black Sea resort of Sochi and 140 km north of the Turkish coastal town of Fatsa and 350 km east-southeast of Feodosiya in Crimea. Ukraine eventually admitted that the disaster was probably caused by an errant missile fired by its armed forces. Ukraine ended up paying $15 million to surviving family members of 78 victims ($200,000 per victim).

    ○ CNN Report: Did surface-to-air missile S-200 take down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17?

    Ukraine holds military parade on Independence Day – Aug. 26, 2008

    BUK-M1 mobile air defence systems of the 11th Air Defence Regiment of the Western Air Command; Vega air defence systems of the Kiev 6th Air Defence Brigade; and a division of S-300PS surface-to-air missiles, which can shoot down aircraft and missiles flying at 4,000 km per hour at the range of up to 90 km and height of up to 30 km.

    • 

      Oui on July 19, 2014 at 4:53 pm

      See my previous report …

      ○ Capabilities and Operation of SA-11 Missile

      CNN Report: Did surface-to-air missile S-200 take down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17?

      I haven’t seen an analysis from air defense experts, but the BUK-M1 has a 70 kg (154 lb) warhead which is triggered by a radar proximity fuse.  

      When the target is within the lethal radius of the weapon’s warhead, a proximity fuse, usually radar, detonates the warhead, commonly a high explosive/fragmentation type and destroys the target. Most weapons have miss distances of the order of metres.

      How does the damage inflicted by a BUK missile compare with the S-300 long range version with comparable payload but higher speed and semi-active radar homing (SARH) guidance mode.

       

      Ukraine holds military parade on Independence Day – Aug. 26, 2008

      BUK-M1 mobile air defence systems of the 11th Air Defence Regiment of the Western Air Command; Vega air defence systems of the Kiev 6th Air Defence Brigade; and a division of S-300PS surface-to-air missiles, which can shoot down aircraft and missiles flying at 4,000 km per hour at the range of up to 90 km and height of up to 30 km.

      Ukroboronservice to upgrade additional Ukrainian S-300PS air defence system

      (May 20, 2014) – Ukraine’s state enterprise Ukroboronservice is in talks to upgrade an additional S-300PS surface-to-air missile (SAM) defence system for the Ukrainian armed forces.

      If the talks are finalised, the company will repair the system and extend its service life by seven years before handing it over to a unit of the Ukrainian armed forces’ air force by the end of June 2014.

      The company recently delivered an upgraded S-300PS air-defence system to the air force, following an intermediate repair on life extension by a total of five years.

      In addition to this, the company is also expected to hand over an upgraded Buk-M1 mobile air defence system to the service early next month.

      Ukroboronprom acting director general Yuriy Tereshchenko said the actions towards strengthening the sky space of the country is an important focus of the concern’s activity.

      “Under the conditions of stable financing, Ukroboronprom’s companies are able in sufficiently close perspective to upgrade air defense system of Ukraine qualitatively,” Tereshchenko said.

      During the upgrade of the next Buk-M1 system, the company specialists are expected to mount the system on an advanced Ukrainian radar station, developed at State Enterprise Scientific and Production Complex, Iskra, instead of a Russian-built station.

      Code-named SA-10 Grumble, the S-300PS has an operational range of 90km, and was introduced to the Soviet armed forces in 1985.

      The system features 5V55R missiles, and is designed to lock in on a target following launch using an active detection system that steers the missile directly at the target.

      Developed by NPO Almaz Bureau, the S-300 is a mobile, long-range air defence system designed to detect, track and destroy incoming cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and high and low-flying strike aircraft.

11. 

    Oui on July 18, 2014 at 6:09 pm

    Similar problems emerged with the Ghouta gas attacks in Damascus and the Maidan Square sniper killings in Kiev …

    ○ Evidence Continues to Emerge #MH17 Is a False Flag Operation

    “Cover-up: Ukraine rebels destroying all links to MH17 air atrocity”

    (The Guardian) – Pro-Russia separatist groups in eastern Ukraine are hastily covering up all links to the Buk missile battery suspected to have been used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane, according to western-based defence and intelligence specialists.

    The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, blamed a surface-to-air missile fired by rebels in eastern Ukraine and hinted that they might have had Russian technical help. The rebels are suspected of having used a Russian-built, vehicle-mounted Buk missile system to bring down MH17.

    Other material on rebel social media sites was being deleted, including pictures showing the alleged capture of Buk missile vehicles by rebels from a Ukrainian air base last month.

    …
    Ukrainian intelligence has published a tape said to be a recording between rebels and Russian intelligence in which they realise there has been a catastrophic blunder. One recording is said to be between a rebel commander, Igor Bezler, and a Russian intelligence officer in which he says: “We have just shot down a plane.” A second recording from an unidentified source puts the blame on Cossack militiamen.

    Defence analysts with Russian expertise shared Power’s scepticism that Russia-backed rebel groups would have had the expertise to fire the missile and suggested it was more likely to have been Russian ground troops who specialise in air defence, seconded to help the rebels.  

    The Guardian was also complicit in publishing biased information on the Maidan Square sniper killings and a video edited to accuse Ukraine security forces.

12. 

    Marie2 on July 19, 2014 at 2:11 am

    Oui, have we heard from SOS Kerry on this matter?  He could be on vacation, or after getting burned on the Sarin gas attack, is he being more cautious or unwilling to play the “bad cop?”

    But we have Samantha Power willing and eager to get ahead of the facts and demonize Russia:

    Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11, it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel.  Thus we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems.

     

    Wonder how Bill Moyers feels about having been suckered by Power a decade ago.  

13. 

    Oui on July 19, 2014 at 8:18 am

    That would fix the date of the audio recording the Kiev junta used in the false flag operation of July 17.

    Ukrainian Antonov-26 military transport plane shot down by rocket

    KIEV, Ukraine (AP) July 14, 2014 — A Ukrainian military transport plane [Antonov AN-12 turboprop] was shot down along the country’s eastern border with Russia but all eight people aboard managed to bail out safely, the defense ministry said.

    Separatist rebels in conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine claimed responsibility for downing the Antonov-26, but Ukrainian officials swiftly ruled that out and blamed Russia instead.

    There was no immediate comment from Russia on the plane.

     « click for more info
    A Ukrainian Air Force Antonov AN-26 transport plane

    In the last two weeks, the government has halved the territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russia separatists, who have been forced back into the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. Many in the armed insurgency are known to be Russian nationals, but Moscow says they are simply citizens who went to fight in Ukraine on their own.

    Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said the plane was flying at an altitude of about 6,500 meters (21,300 feet), which he said was too high to be reached with the weapons used by the separatists. Rebels are known to have Igla portable surface-to-air missiles, which work up to about 3,500 meters.

    Ukraine’s Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said data from the plane’s surviving crew suggested the rocket was either a surface-to-air Pantsir missile or a missile fired by a plane from Russia’s Millerovo Air Force base.

    In London, Charles Heyman, a defense analyst who edits a book called “Armed Forces of the European Union,” said the missile was more likely fired by the Ukrainian rebels.

    “I doubt the transport plane was flying at 6,500 meters. That doesn’t make sense. The higher you fly, the more it costs, and the plane would have had to be pressurized,” Heyman said. “It was probably shot down using SAM-6 missiles owned by the rebels, which they have quite a few of.”

    Fighting intensified around Luhansk, meanwhile, as government forces stepped up efforts to disrupt rebel lines and reclaim more territory.

    The Defense Ministry said Monday that government troops had retaken several villages around Luhansk –including Metalist, Oleksandrivsk, Bile and Rozkishne — and had reopened a corridor to its civilian airport. Those areas are north, west and south of the city, suggesting the government’s plan to form a security cordon around Luhansk is yielding results.

    Al Jazeera: Kiev blames Moscow for downing of Ukrainian military transport plane

    ○ Wikipedia: Ukrainian Air Force