#MH17 Just watching investigators and stretcher team move into cornfield
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 19, 2014
#Ukraine PM says no deal exists for investigator safe secure access to #MH17 crash site - accuses "terrorists" of hiding 38 victims bodies
— Nic Robertson (@NicRobertsonCNN) July 19, 2014
From here, in this harvested wheat field, I counted 22 fragments of #MH17 debris with the naked eye in 10 seconds. pic.twitter.com/z7p39OiJD0
— Kevin Bishop (@bishopk) July 19, 2014
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with a few tweets from Der Spiegel's Mathieu von Rohr looking at some of the latest British and French press reaction to MH17:
The Daily Telegraph front page: "Russian gangsters killed our loved ones, say British families" #MH17 pic.twitter.com/YZ7HExiA53
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) July 19, 2014
"Putin's victims". Daily Mirror front page. #MH17 pic.twitter.com/n1tAZ66slm
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) July 19, 2014
Libération front page shows Putin and the headline "Accused" #MH17 pic.twitter.com/TxKWfmluZS
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) July 19, 2014
We are now closing our live blog for today. Don't forget that you can keep abreast of all our Ukraine coverage here.
OSCE on #MH17 crash site: bodies lying everywhere decomposed, some burnt, others mangled together. Nobody removing them for cold storage.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) July 18, 2014
OSCE have no idea who is controlling #MH17 crash site. Appears to be several small rebel groups with no leader. Fate of black boxes unknown.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) July 18, 2014
OSCE unable to access all but a small area of #MH17 crash site due to aggressive armed rebel guards. "Some looked slightly intoxicated."
— max seddon (@maxseddon) July 18, 2014
the war in Ukraine is a real war: the crash of #MH17 makes it impossible to keep pretending otherwise http://t.co/R42Z1vnHNE
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) July 18, 2014
In India, mourn the dead. Inscription "Shame humanity." # Boeing -777 pic.twitter.com/ymWKHeH3ZJ
- Ukraine News (@ Dbnmjr) July 18, 2014
RFE/RL's news desk has issued this item on what could be a very interesting development in the separatist ranks:
Denis Pushilin, one of the more visible figures in the pro-Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, has resigned, reports say.
Pushilin was the self-styled Chairman of the Supreme Council of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.
Pushilin's deputy, Vladimir Makovich, said on July 18 that Pushilin had sent a letter addressed to him in which he announced he was stepping down from his post.
"Denis is now in Moscow," Makovich said.
The reasons for Pushilin's resignation were not clear.
It came just after he was quoted as saying that his group is willing grant the international community access to the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which crashed in the area on July 17.
Earlier in July, Pushilin had criticized Russia for not coming to the separatists' aid when Kyiv stepped up its military operation against the separatists.
(Interfax, ITAR-TASS, washingtonpost.com)
RFE/RL's information unit has produced this interactive map, showing a number of recent incidents involving aircraft over Ukraine's volatile eastern region: