Russia appeals for new MH17 probe:
Russia has appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization to open a new probe into last year's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine.
Oleg Storchevoi, deputy chief of the Russian Aviation Agency, made the comment during a press conference in Moscow on October 14.
The Boeing 777 crashed on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
The Dutch Safety Board said in its final report released on October 13 that the jet was destroyed by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. Two-thirds of the victims in the crash were Dutch.
The probe did not say who had fired the missile, but it identified an area of 320 square kilometers from where it said the launch must have taken place. At the time of the attack, that land was mostly under the control of the pro-Russia rebels.
Storchevoi hinted that Russia believes that some of the evidence has been faked.
Speaking in Donetsk, rebel leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko denied any involvement in the crash. (TASS, Interfax, AP)
President Petro Poroshenko took a test flight on an Su-27 fighter jet while on a visit to Zaporizhzhya.
The two Su-27 jet fighters Poroshenko saw today were modernized in accordance to NATO standards.
A tweet from the U.K. ambassador to Kyiv wishing Ukrainians well on Defender Of Ukraine Day:
Viktor Hirzhov, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian diaspora in Moscow, has been banned from Russia for five years.
Last night Russian border guards took him off the train in Russian Bryansk, as Hrizhov was coming back home from Ukraine. According to a Russian FSB resolution, he has been denied entry to Russia since September 1.
Talking to the Ukrainian information agency UNIAN, Hrizhov speculated that the cause of the decision could have been related to his views on Ukraine.
"I don’t hide my views and wherever I can I actively advocate for our country," he said.
Hirzhov has been living in Moscow for 20 years, where he works as a journalist and political scientist. His wife and two adult children, all Russian citizens, live in Moscow.