As you probably know, the second anniversary of the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine is just around the corner (July 17). One of the things The Guardian has done to mark the occasion is to publish an interview with one of the victim's relatives. Here's an excerpt:
Flight MH17, Two Years On: 'As Far As I’m Concerned, Putin Killed My Son'
On 17 July 2014, Richard Mayne was upstairs in his bedroom, stuffing clothes into a suitcase. It was 1am. A few hours later, he was due to set off on a trip around the world. Aged 20, Richard was a second-year student at Leeds University.
He was studying maths and finance. His year abroad was to be spent in the agreeable, scorching surroundings of the University of Western Australia in Perth. Richard was sporty, charismatic, a talented rugby player. And the witty mid-point of a social situation.
He was a lousy packer, though. “He wasn’t very organised. It’s almost as if he didn’t want to go,” his mum Liz says. “Australia was going to be hot and he’d packed a tuxedo. He bought himself a new surf suit. His rugby boots went on top. He was going to rugby training straight from the plane.”
At 4am, Liz drove Richard from their home in Leicester to Birmingham airport. From there he was catching an early flight to Amsterdam and a long-haul connection on to Kuala Lumpur. At check-in, Liz says she had a “bit of an argument” with her son, who insisted on taking his laptop with him for the flight rather than his insulin. He had type 1 diabetes.
Liz watched her son vanish through the barrier. “He just turned back and waved as he went through. A cheeky wave,” she recalls. “He wanted to go. He was eagerly anticipating this new, exciting adventure. I told him: ‘Make sure you wear your sweatshirt, because of the air-conditioning.’”
Later, the family celebrated in a local cafe; it was the 19th birthday of Richard’s younger brother, Will. When they got home around 5pm, Will browsed Twitter. There was news. It was ominous. A civilian jet was reported to have crashed.
It had come down in eastern Ukraine, the scene of a violent three-month war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow. That April, Vladimir Putin had annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. He had also begun a covert military invasion of eastern Ukraine. It started in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, spreading into the gritty surrounding mining towns and countryside.
The crashed plane appeared to be Richard’s. It was Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. “We switched on the TV. It said ‘plane shot down’. I just knew there was no way he is going to survive that,” Will says. At that point, he adds, there was little information and much confusion. The UK government was seemingly unaware that British citizens were on board.
The next few hours were numbing as the reality sank in: Richard wasn’t coming back from his year-long trip. Malaysian Airlines called in the late evening to inform them it was “100% certain” he had got on the plane at Amsterdam. The phone rang; Richard’s aunt came round. At 5am, two police officers arrived. Liz told them: “I know why you are here.”
Richard was one of 298 people on board the Boeing 777. It had been flying at 32,000 feet. Two-thirds of the passengers were Dutch; the others came from Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand. There were 10 Britons and 15 Malaysian crew. None survived.
Read the entire article here
Good morning. Things seem relatively quiet in Ukraine this morning (with even local media outlets understandably focusing on events in Nice), but here's a selection of some of the things that caught our eye overnight:
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
Here's an RFE/RL video report on on the appearance today of a drone in the Ukrainian parliament, which still has a reputation as one of the most volatile assemblies in Europe. (No fisticuffs this time, though!)
That's quite a picture
That man again