Some 30 #OSCE monitors have now arrived by helicopter at #MH17 crash site in east #Ukraine http://t.co/7i6QkzL4sz
— Lotte Leicht (@LotteLeicht1) July 18, 2014
Re-upping our "How Is Russia Viewed Around The World?" graphic. The figures come from the Pew Research Center's "Spring 2014 Global Attitudes" survey. Click the image to see the full, interactive format.
RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth has been asking Muscovites in the streets of Moscow what they make of the MH17 crash:
You can read more of media coverage of the Malaysian Airlines crash in Ukraine here
Reporter resigns from @RT_com and spills the beans: Every single day we’re lying and finding sexier ways to do it http://t.co/7Do7LtjYz0
— Peter Bouckaert (@bouckap) July 18, 2014
An army truck arrives as the search for bodies here continues. #ML17 pic.twitter.com/j4vf1J3sop
— Kevin Bishop (@bishopk) July 18, 2014
Our news desk has issued this brief item on what the UN Security Council has been saying about MH17:
The UN Security Council has unanimously called for a "full, thorough, and independent international investigation" into the downing of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over Ukraine.
Meeting in New York today, the council has also urged all parties to grant investigators access to the site.
In a statement agreed by consensus, the council equally called for "appropriate accountability."
The UN Security Council observed a minute of silence for the victims of the Malaysia jet disaster.
The Ukrainian military and the separatists are blaming each other for shooting down the plane with a missile on July 17.
U.S. officials have said Washington strongly suspects the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was downed by a missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow.
(Reuters, AFP)
Lenta.ru has highlighted a passage from the Malaysia Airlines statement on the doomed flight in a story headlined "Ukrainian Air Traffic Controllers Forced 'Boeing' To Fly Lower." (The link is no longer unavailable -- it's been replaced by a story pointing out that Ukrainian authorities have seized air-traffic control records -- so we're including, below, a screen grab of the article in question.)
Here's the relevant passage of the airline's statement:
MH17 filed a flight plan requesting to fly at 35,000ft throughout Ukrainian airspace. This is close to the ‘optimum’ altitude.
However, an aircraft’s altitude in flight is determined by air traffic control on the ground. Upon entering Ukrainian airspace, MH17 was instructed by Ukrainian air traffic control to fly at 33,000ft.
The piece did not level any accusations or draw explicit connections, but it contributed to the growing amount of anti-Ukrainian, seemingly conspiracy-minded innuendo in Russian media covering the air disaster.
"The Guardian" has a little more on the resignation of RT's Sara Firth over the station's MH17 coverage:
“Yesterday [Thursday], when the story broke, you get the kick in your stomach when you’re going to get the facts and it’s this huge story.
“And I walked into the newsroom and they were running an eye-witness account of God-knows who the person was blaming the Ukrainian government, and it is such a volatile situation,” she told Press Gazette.
“I said [in a 2012 interview], if I was asked to burn the facts and not tell the truth, I’d be a goner, and so I’m gone. It’s the level of disrespect for the facts that really bugs me.
“I made my decision yesterday when we started covering the story and this morning I woke up and I just knew that I can’t go back in any more.
“The thing is, once I made the decision, you have to be honest with yourself and it’s so difficult … Once you start telling the truth it’s brutal.”
Firth said on Twitter: “I resigned from RT today. I have huge respect for many in the team, but I’m for the truth.”
Read more here
Source: U.S. intel indicates missile that hit MH17 most likely was fired by separatists in Ukraine. http://t.co/uJLy7piCtf
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 18, 2014