Malaysian flight MH17 / Ukraine conflict 2014

#mygeneration

The Dutch / Australian investigation team has been forced to postpone their initial visit to the crash site because of fighting. Ukraine had declared a 40km ceasefire zone around the site but appear to have decided cutting Donetsk off from the Russian border is more of a priority at the moment. There have been reports from Western journalists of shelling / Grad missile attacks on residential areas and dozens of civilian casualties. This could go on for a while.

The Dutch Justice Ministry said the team was unable to leave the city of Donetsk because "there is too much fighting at the moment on and near the route to the disaster site."

Also from CNN

But those sanctions have so far failed to stem the flow of weapons or the fighting, which appeared to enter a dangerous new phase Tuesday on reports that Ukraine's government had used short-range ballistic missiles against the rebels, according to three U.S. officials.

The weapons have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and pack up to 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) warheads. If the reports are accurate, they are the most deadly missiles to date used in the conflict.

The officials did not specify exactly where the missiles hit or what damage they caused.

One U.S. official said so far, there has been no reaction from Russia. A second official said it is not clear if the United States will show satellite imagery of the Ukrainian firings "because these are the good guys."

Whether it was ballistic missiles or conventional shelling, the Ukrainians managed to bomb a geriatric home this morning.

The separatists seem to have stepped up kidnappings.

Have to sleep in a few minutes, just wanted to note that the remains of the Malaysian victims are finally arriving home in a few hours.

we won't be able to top the stoic dignity and elegance of the Dutch ceremony, but I do sure hope we try.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 crashed as a result of a Russian-made 9M38 Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board says.

this is weirdly moving

https://instagram.com/p/8x2ciYiFvb/

how is there not more international blowback from this

I think there will be but it'll take time, it's a complicated situation. The route the Netherlands is going down is probably the correct one - supporting the families in taking legal action against Russia. Although it's assumed that the rebels shot the plane down with a BUK mistaking it for Ukrainian military transport, there's no point in suing them directly. They'll need to show that they got the missiles from Russia, which isn't 100% straightforward. Both armies use them and the rebels captured quite a lot of Ukrainian hardware when they took over Donbass.

Diplomatically, it's not a great time for governments to make a big thing of it - the situation has settled down and the US and EU are pressuring both sides into a negotiated settlement with regional autonomy and elections. Novorossiya flags are coming down and a lot of the people who were nominally in charge of the rebel militias have left and are doing other things. The likes of Strelkov are probably beyond the reach of international justice:

http://i.imgur.com/nHxBtU0.jpg?1

There's also an interesting precedent to be considered in how far a country is directly responsible for the weapons it gives to non-state actors. If Russia is liable for the actions of militias it supports, the US and UK are responsible for the dubious people it provides assistance to in Syria, etc. Legally, it's correct but it's not necessarily something people are going to want to bring to the forefront of public attention.

*thread bump*

Lost in all the news this week was that defense arguments for the four men charged in absentia with shooting down MH17 starts Monday.
https://www.courtmh17.com/en/