Another item from our news desk:
Crimean Journalist's Trial Resumes, Adjourned Until June
The trial of RFE/RL contributor Mykola Semena, a Crimean journalist who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge on the Russian-controlled peninsula, resumed on June 5 in the Crimean capital, Simferopol.
Semena's lawyer, Aleksei Popkov, told RFE/RL that materials linked to the prosecution were read out at the session on June 5. The judge then postponed the trial until June 14.
Semena faces up to five years in prison if convicted by Russia, which has jailed several people from Crimea who have opposed or criticized Moscow’s 2014 seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine.
Semena's trial has been adjourned several times for different reasons since it started on March 20.
The charge against 66-year-old Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015.
The Kremlin-installed authorities in Crimea have charged that the article called for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.
Semena maintains he is innocent. He has said that Crimea's status was and remains in dispute, and that he has the right to openly express his opinions.
The United States, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and international media watchdogs have expressed concern about Semena’s prosecution.
Activists say his trial is part of a persistent Russian clampdown on independent media and dissent in Crimea since Moscow’s takeover.
RFE/RL President Thomas Kent has described the case against Semena as "part of a concerted effort by Russian and Russian-backed authorities to obstruct RFE/RL's journalistic mission to provide an independent press to residents of Crimea."
After a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president fled in the face of pro-European protests in February 2014, Russia seized control of Crimea after sending in troops and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Kyiv, the United States, and a total of 100 UN member states.
The United States, European Union, and other countries imposed sanctions on Russia over the takeover of Crimea and say they will not be lifted until it is returned to Kyiv's control.
As you probably know, Bellingcat issued new reports on MH17 today and RFE/RL's news desk has been taking a look:
Cybersleuths Say Convoy Movements Show Link To MH17 Plane Crash
A team of open-source researchers investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has published reports linking the movements of Russian military equipment to the plane’s downing.
The reports, released on June 5 by Bellingcat, track the locations of vehicles including the Buk missile launcher that the British-based research group says was involved in the July 2014 downing of MH17.
Focusing on information gleaned from drivers, Bellingcat published censored photos of drivers and the convoys of trucks that it alleges moved the equipment into place in the weeks before the airliner crashed during a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
"An uncensored version of the report including full names and uncensored photographs has been shared with the MH17 Joint Investigation Team (JIT)," Bellingcat said, referring to the international team that has investigated the crash.
Belligcat's previous reports had already identified Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade as being the likely source of the missile that investigators say brought down the jet.
But the new reports add to a growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting Russian complicity. This includes personal information about Russian military officers and enlisted soldiers who Bellingcat alleges specifically knew of, and possibly even manned, the Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile system believed to have brought down MH17.
International media, including the Associated Press, have pinpointed Buk-M1 systems in the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne on the day of the plane’s downing, and accompanying soldiers who spoke with accents that seemed to be from Moscow and other regions in Russia.
Russian Denials, Alternate Theories
Russia has strenuously denied the fighters it supports in eastern Ukraine were responsible or that it supplied the missile system. A leading separatist commander initially appeared to take credit for firing a missile and downing a Ukrainian jet, but those claims on social media were later removed.
Russian officials have also put forth myriad alternate theories, including claims that MH17 was downed by a missile fired from a Ukrainian fighter jet, in what Kremlin critics say is a disinformation campaign aimed to muddy the waters.
The 298 victims of the MH17 crash, many of whom were Dutch, are among at least 9,900 people the UN says have been killed since the conflict between the Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces began in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.
The conflict broke out as Russia, which seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, was fomenting separatism across eastern and southern Ukraine after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in the face of protests.