says the missile was a russian-made buk missile unit. ukraine's interior ministry is releasing new video showing a truck carrying a buk missile unit to the border. the unit usually carries four missiles. in that video one appears to be missing. the missile was fired from inside an area controlled by pro-russian rebels. >>> a hundred of the passengers on that malaysia flight were on their way to attend the international aids conference in melbourne. last night we spoke to an attendee about the impact this will have on the aids research world. >> we lost some leading researchers, leading activists, but we know within the international aids community that that bench is deep and that that will further strengthen the resolve of those who are still with us to continue this incredible fight. and we will honor their memories by doing so. >> a moment of silence honored researchers joep lange. >>> this has been one story that's been hard to report and also one to watch. we know health experts say that there is a reason why we can't seem to look awa

says the missile was a russian-made buk missile unit. r ministry is releasing new video of a truck there carrying the buk missile to the border. at least one of the missiles appears to be missing. u.s. intelligence says it was fired from inside an area controlled by pro-russia rebels. >>> a hundred of those on the flight were on their way to attend the international aids conference in melbourne. last night we spoke to kimberly carrbaukh who was at the conference when they learned of the tragedy. >> everybody here is stunned and very sad. not only for the loss of the individuals who were coming to this conference, but for all of those lives lost as well as for the families that are dealing with this tragedy around the world. >> a moment of silence honored researchers lange and other victims. coming up on the "today" show, the latest developments on the malaysia flight 17 crash. you can also check nbcwashington.com and follow up on facebook and twitter. >>> the time now is 6:31. cloudy skies as we look live outside of our studios here in no

up next, the buk missile system. the uniteds says they've confirmed was indeed used in taking down this airliner. what exactly can it do? and where did the pro russian rebels get it from? and the passengers of flight 17. the people who died on that plane. and those who were going to get on and didn't at the last moment. ing our country. thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. [ male announcer ] cleaner, start with the best writing experience.? make it incredibly thin. add an

mission, and that is to leave very little doubt about who the united states government think is responsible for this. it was a buk missileanufactured by russia, possessed by russia, and a unit of which that system was taken over by ukrainian rebels just a short time ago. the president also noting that the missile was fired from herrer to held by separatists, those who want to break away from ukraine. but the president's mission was twofold. first the integrity of the crash site. there's no question in anybody's mind here at the white house or throughout the u.s. government of who is responsible for this. the separatists and by extension the russian government. the white house very concerned about the integrity of the crash site after reports that separatists absconded with the black boxes. but urging that there needs to be an international investigation. and this could be a galvanizing moment against what russia is doing in ukraine. and that is why the president spoke to the long-term goal of pointing to this issue, and bringing the europeans along and others to get tough on russia. >> i think it's important for us to re

. >>> "out front" next, the buk missile system, now the united states says they confirmed was, indeedused in taking down this airliner. what exactly can it do? and where did the pro-russian rebels get it from? >>> and the passengers of flight 17. the people who died on that plane. and those who were going to get on and didn't at the last moment. the wonder of summer is that i never know what kind of adventure awaits. the days are longer, and the breeze feels a little sweeter. and, thanks to volvo, i'll pay nothing for repairs or maintenance for 5 years, nothing. they even cover my first month's payment. so, i'll be happy wherever the summer takes me. the wonder of summer event. the 2015 volvo s60 sedan with complimentary first month's payment. starting at $319 a month. amam rich. my social circle includes captains of industry, former secretaries of state, oil tycoons, and ambassadors of countries known for their fine cheeses. yes i am rich. that's why i drink the champagne of beers. >>> breaking news on flight mh-17. u.s. officials tell cnn they believe that a buk missile system, that

a buk missile, one of the missiles fired off a unit like this is about 16 feet long. so we have made it a little smaller here just to get it into the picture. it weighs about 1500 pounds. it has a warhead of 154 pounds of high explosives. it doesn't actually have to hit the target. it just has to get close to it. but with electronic guidance from the ground, it can get very, very close before it blows up. and look at that last number there. top speed 2684 miles an hour. traveling more than three times the speed of sound. by comparison, a plane like this is only going 500, 600 miles an hour. what that means is if a missile like this is fired at that plane, it can cover 30 miles to the plane in about 40 seconds. and in all likelihood, nobody on board, including the crew, would even see it coming. don? >> all right, tom foreman, thank you very much for that. cnn's richard quest back with me now. also joining us is "new york times" matthew l. wald. to hit a 777, a missile like that, a 77 doesn't stand a chance? >> not at all. >> at 33,000 feet. >> it's moving relatively s

buk missile launcher, which one channel has determined was not russian at all. that it was ukrainian because they traced the serial number on the side of the buk missile launcher, number 312, to a unit that was based in ukraine. whether it was the conversations between the separatists, the russian separatists and his alleged russian handler. we've seen that 100 times now. that, in fact, according to another russian tv channel was a manufacturered series of conversations. audio fragments, if you will, that gave the impression that it was russians but, in fact, it wasn't. and on and on. so he's using this weapon quite to a great extent at a great effect because many, not all, but many of the russians here, perhaps not so much moscow but in other towns and cities across this country, get most of their information as we know from these channels. and there hasn't been a sense at all of the anger and outrage that the world, at least the western world, feels towards russia and towards especially vladimir putin right now. back to you. >> and michael mcfaul, you were the ambassador in russia. you had some celebrated dust-ups with vladimir putin. what is his end game here? does he think there

buk missile launchers. and he says that may have come from russia, just as the united states suspects. here's his quote. that buk i know about, i heard about it, i think they sent it back. they probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its existence. the commander later said he was misquoted. >>> also new this morning, australia sending about 50 of its federal police officers to london, and their next stop could be the crash site in eastern ukraine. that force could join an international deployment to secure the site and any evidence there. also in the next hour, dozens more of the victims are due to arrive in the netherlands. two planes are en route from ukraine carrying some 74 coffins. yesterday a national day of mourning, citizens lined the streets to pay somber tribute for the first 40 k06ens that arrived back home. >>> secretary of state john kerry is back in cairo, egypt this morning trying for a second time to end the bloodshed and broker a deal between israel and hamas. wolf, are they close? >> reporter: they're getting closer, but still not there. it's going to take a while. the egyptia

that has been released by ukrainian government officials and some by the united states, but the report this missile launcher, this buk missile launcher came from rush into ukraine, fired missiles and spirited back across the border. are you confirming that as well? >> that's what the american government is saying. youtube videos, evidence released i the government, it is all circumstantial at this point, but if the united states government can solidify that evidence and make it public, that will be difficult for moscow to ignore and difficult for european allies to ignore, if they can see a very hard case with tangible evidence that the russians and ukrainian separatists greatly responsible for this, that is going to change the equation here pretty quickly. jon: craig is a nationals get a correspondent at "the washington post." a very busy week for you. jenna: the president already under fire for his executive order, signing a new one today about an hour ago. that new one affects 30 million people be at what it is and what to expect coming up. israel destroyed two more tunnels leading to the gaza strip to its territo

buk that unleashed this missile. >> is that right, steve? why not have the uniteds just declassify our considerable intelligence and surveillance of that area and just prove once and for all this was russian-backed separatists? >> well, the great thing about diane feinstein is she has access to the secrets and the top-secret security clearance. some of us journal itseists cov this since the plane went down and saw some of the things the ukrainian government released, which were taped phone conversations and eventually photographic evidence of these missiles going across lines, many of us say ukraine doesn't have that capacity. who has that capacity to develop that kind of intelligence? the united states does. while we haven't by saying it, i think it's highly likely the united states has been very coordinated in helping to provide the ukrainians with pictures and sound of what happened. and what diane feinstein is intimating without violating her responsibilities is saying there's stuff out there, that if we just put out there, you know, like we did in the united n

. >> the anti-aircraft system that the united states says was responsible for the downing of malaysia airlines flight 17 is a soviet-era surface-to-air buk missile also called the sa-11. ukrainian government has those weapons in its possession as well. u.s. was unaware of any ukrainian systems near the scene of the crash, but as the ambassador to the united nations, samantha power, told the security council this morning, there were other sa-11s near the crash site. >> early thursday an sa-11 s.a.m. system was reported nearby by a western reporter and separatists were spotted hours before the incident with an sa-11 system at a location close to the site where the plane came down. >> and ukraine offered up what it said was evidence of such a system in separatist hands. >> today, ukraine's security service released this footage purportedly showing a russian-made missile system moving in just two hours before mh-17 was downed. they claim this shows the same missile launcher being hurriedly taken away today, crucially two of its four missiles are missing. >> united states today made it clear a separatist did have a missile launcher, they likely could

the buk system is supposed to be networked across five or six individual units with a rack of missilesop. you can operate them in a single truck parked by itself in the field, and the system has anautomated detection mode. anything coming within 25 miles it will monitor or target. you can set it you will to monitor and fire. if we think an inexperienced operator was at the helm with a little bit of thing - it's like a camera, you put it on autoshoot. >> implications are huge. a lot of people are tweeting saying it's obvious that russians did it, it's russian made. there's a lot of these around. all sorts of people in the middle east have access to these. this is not a stinger missile, where someone holds it on the shoulder and shoots down a helicopter. >> that right. and in the most sophisticated automated systems, we had major problems. the u.s. had two terrible instances where our patriot systems fired on a royal navy aircraft and a fighter jet. we have seen it happen. it could be a software problem. i'm not sure that this is reportable, but there is a suggestion that certain among t

. >> if you believe that the united states fabricated evidence about this buk missile fired from prosian territory. >> listen, i am talking about audio tape. audio tape was fabricated and even videotape when they showed the buk missile, russians proved that this was under the control of forces, but in -- >> in order for the audio tape to be fabricated, people with accents made up an and you had toe tape -- >> no, no, no. russian specialists proved this was composed of two parts. first part of conversation was taped on previous day on 16t 16th and second part on 17t 17th and they put together in order to show that this is the same conversation -- >> let me ask you this. >> are you prepared if the international community proves that russia had fingerprints all over this operation, to come back on to the show and say i was wrong? >> sure. by the way, this is the position of russian government, open for partial -- >> who would that be? >> you know what is the problem, what really makes all this situation very tense, because everybody's jumping here in this country, in america to a conclu

it's not very easy to drive a buk anti-aircraft missile system without being seen or detected. it's like driving a tank from the united states to mexico. and then the crisis will be resolved. there was a cease-fire a few weeks ago, the separatists broke it. another cease-fire will happen imminently. i have no doubt the separatists will keep carrying on. and, you know, look. europe has to really make an important decision here about what they want to do. this was -- this happened on european territory. most of the victims are europeans. you saw the protests on your show in the netherlands of people protesting, blaming personally vladimir putin. the question about dependency on russian money, russian gas. said on msnbc earlier today, it's a great line and more people should take it up. the old refrain of the cold war was better red than dead. and the new one is better than dead. >> thank you so much for joining me tonight. >>> coming up, in new york city, what is the penalty for selling cigarettes illegally? last week, the penalty was death. and in the re-write, the secret republican tax increase is not so secret anymor

buk anti-missile system. it's one of those that's being talked about in this case. it is a four-man unit. it has four ready-to-fire missiles up on top. it can set up and fire very quickly, and it can move away after firing very quickly. and those missiles have a tremendous amount of power. let's bring one in here and talk about that. each one is about 16 feet long. we're showing them a little bit smaller here just to make it all fit. it will weigh about 1,500 pounds. and it has a 154-pound warhead on it. that means 154 pounds of high explosive. it doesn't actually have to hit the target, it just has to get close to it. but with electronics guidance systems, it can get very close, and it can do it in a short period of time, 22 seconds from the time its radar achoirs the target and it can be launched. it travels at a speed of 2,684 miles per hour, even if it were fired from 30 miles away, it could have hit a plane like this in 40 seconds or less. that means people onboard would absolutely never even see it coming. >> tom foreman there. let's go to bob, former cia operative and cnn security

new information that came from unit ukraine officials, this is another recorded conversation of pro russian separatists in ukraine bracking how they got this buk missilet into the country from russia. there was a recorded conversation. remember, there was a recorded conversation that came out yesterday of these pro russian militants as they shot down this passenger plane. this is a new recording which appears to be describing how they captured the missile system in crimea. we're translating it now because it's in russian. you have them bragging them about where do they load this beauty and they are saying specifically they have a buk, missile system, from the ukrainian side and to be clear, this is coming from the ukrainian secret service, intelligence service, more evidence of their point of view of at least some russian involvement, not necessarily that the russians handed them this, but russia would have to be involved if the system was transported through russia into eastern ukraine so more alarming evidence here. >> the information war part of this conflict as well. we're going to squeeze in another quick break and we'll be right back with commen

interrupt you, but the united states tells cnn that they are investigating the possibility that it was russian personnel who may have actually been manning this buk, this sa-11 missile system. do you believe that as well? is that what your intelligence has picked up? >> we have intercepted phone conversation which we'll make it public by our secret service and we had a lot of evidence that these people are supported by russia, trained by russia, armed by russia, and most of them, and their leaders are russian citizens. that is for sure. and we now have an absolutely different situation than before this terroristic attack. the older people in the world should find out their own place, are they together with the civilized world which demonstrated solidarity, with the victims, of the country who suffered from this terroristic attack with ukraine or they support the terrorists and this is absolutely possible to mix. i think every country and every person and every leader should find out their own place. ukraine -- ukrainian court make a decision to recognize these so-called donetsk people as a terroristic organization. most of the country who suffered of the terroristic

united states. those inside the interior ministry in ukraine claiming this plane was shot down by pro-russia separatists using a russian made missile system, a buk, capable of hitting a target 70,000 feet up. this passenger jet was at a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet. cnn is on the ground in ukraine. let's go to victoria butenko in kiev and tom foreman with a closer look at what unfolded. victoria, what's the latest you're hearing from kiev? and we just lost victoria. we'll get her back shortly. let's go to tom foreman with a look. >> we've been looking all day at this buk anti aircraft system or anti missile system as it is called out there. we don't know this is what was used. we're looking at the capability of the system, if, in fact, it could accomplish such a thing. if you look at the flight pattern, you see it came across the country as we have discussed, wound up down here before it went down. let me put it on to a more normal map so you can see more of what we're talking about. that puts the crash site down in this area, and this is russia, all over here. all of the green out here, this is all russia. so you're getting quite close to r

united states believes it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile called s.a.m.s. they haven't yet determined who fired the missile exactly. a launcher similar to the bukystem has been seen by some of the reporters in separatist-held areas of eastern ukraine. the separatists have them and saw them this week. it has the capability of hitting a target up to 72,000 feet. that's 12 miles. by the way, the 777 plane was thought to be flying at 33,000, well within range. barry mccaffery is an msnbc military analyst. michael weiss is a foreign policy columnist and editor of the interpreter. we are going to have a clip for you in a moment here. by the way, here is a clip that nbc's tom costello mentioned earlier. it's audio are released -- we don't have it yet. general, we have a tape now we'll be playing here that basically has russians basically in cahoots with separatists saying i think we screwed up here, using the f-word, because we shot down a passenger plane instead of a military plane. we are close to the reality of the horror here. >> no question. look, chris, what we should have known in u.s. intelligence within an hour or two, i have been on the radi

of the united states stood in the white house and announced sanctions against eight russian defense firms, including the one which makes the missile, this is before we had been talking about the buk missiles, it was clear that the u.s. had concerns that those missiles were making their way into ukraine, into separatists' hands, and they wanted to -- this was their shot across the bow at russia, saying, cut it out, we've seen your advanced weapons systems moving into eastern ukraine, and less than 24 hours later a commercial aircraft, malaysia airlines flight 17 is brought down by none other than a buk missile. >> jennifer, with all of that evidence amassed, it is not the end of it. john busty from the "wall street journal" is with us. two intercepted phone calls? >> so say the ukrainian security forces. it has to be taken in that context. they're going to argue their own book on this. the two calls they say they intercepted were between a rebel commander, and a russian are military intelligence, so they say. in which the rebel commander says that we shot this plane down. the other telephone call, they say, was between a rebel who was at the crash site and one who was off-site, in

buk missiles from russia. take a listen. [ speaking in a foreign language ] [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> audio recordings released which will undoubtedly be pored over. >> what is credible, what is not. united states is looking, as well as other governments around the world. yeah, our cnn's phil black is the first network correspondent to reach the crash site and he has this report. >> reporter: what remains of malaysian airlines flight 17 is passengers, crew, their belongings and baggage now spread across a wide area in this region of eastern ukraine. the landscape here is not dramatically by large pieces of wreckage from the boeing 777 and it is marked very poignantly by the many pieces of white ribbon tied to sticks, which mark the location of bodies. which mark the location of bodies, which are yet to be recovered. and there are many of them. this region, this territory, is still controlled by pro-russian militants. they have allowed some emergency workers to come in and begin a very small scale, quite disorganized, recovery operation, but what we do not see here are the many highly qualified people that are required to come in, secure the site, begin an investigation, and recover the b

united states evil. and then something like this happens following, as you noted, the downing of two ukrainian planes this week. it's very curious timing. >> curious and terrible times. look, this buk missile system, the uk, could have been what nato calls a sam 11 or sam 17. they are virtually indistinguishable. either would have been unable to take down a plane. it could have been some tear blg incident not related to russia. it lends to this allegation. poroshenko spoke with vice president biden who was in detroit on another trip and biden was talking to the kiev leader about his concerns. we've talked to others who were involved in election observation as the ukrainian election led to this result and not to a dimminuation of the conflict. this, at the same time as you were alluding to, when the president and the white house has the conflict to worry about in the middle east, the continuing escalation between israel and gaza, despite a brief couple of hours of a humanitarian time-out in relation to a u.n. request today, increasing diploma see behind this. serious talks with iran, iraq, afghanistan, terror in pakistan, this is a very, very difficult time for this white house. >> indeed.

missile system. joe? >> you talk about this buk russian missile system. when were those taken over to ukraine and the likelihood this was an accident just like 1988 when the unitedtates accidentally shot down an iranian airliner? >> certainly some of those missile systems were shipped over across the border from russia into ukraine the past several weeks. one of the reasons that president obama slapped stricter sanctions against the russians. obviously there was no evidence they were trying to deescalate the tensions but escalating the tensions by shipping heavy weapons into eastern ukraine at this point. could it have been an accident? even before all of the details, many u.s. military officials we were talking to said it's highly unlikely that the russian military, even the separatists, would have targeted a civilian aircraft. so that the fact that it may have been a case of, you know, mistaken identity is very high on their charts and these missile systems, they can locate a target but they can't necessarily identify it. joe? >> all right, jim. thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon, stay with us, if you will. richard haass

buk automatic missile launcher they should know that the plane was not a military plane. it's a big target. they should analyze and they should knew that it was a civilian plane. >> the unitedying the blame on russia. >> responsibility lays at the feet of president putin not just for this, but for every incident that we've seen throughout this conflict. >> vladimir putin's intentions on ukraine's eastern border with russia are unclear as u.s. officials question moves by the rebels and their backers in mosc moscow. u.s. intelligence is looking at whether these two ukrainian su-25s shot down wednesday could have been brought down by surface -to-air missile fire frm the russian side of the border. cnn has learned the latest u.s. intelligencendicates, in fact, some russian troops have moved right to the border giving them the ability to attack into ukraine without entering the country even as they continue to send tanks and artillery across into rebel-held territory. intelligence also indicates some rebels have fled from their ukrainian strongholds and gone back into russia. now the u.s. calculates that the missile that hit flight 17 perhaps blew for less than 10 seconds before

united states will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. >> reporter: this is the missile system ukrainian officials identified as behind the attack. a russian made buk surface-to-air missile. pro-russian separatists captured a launcher at the end of june in eastern ukraine showing it off in a story broadcast on russian television. the system has the capability to strike an aircraft at 33,000 feet. the cruising altitude of the malaysian jet. a leader of the self-declared donetsk people's republic allegedly tweeted this just as the mh17 went missing. allaire craft was shot down in the torez region. it is dropping towards the vicinity of the progress mine adding ominously, we did warn you, do not fly in our sky. in recent weeks, ukrainian officials say pro-russian separatists have shot down several ukrainian military aircraft. i was in contact with the deputy foreign minister pointing the finger directly at vladimir putin. he told me russia inspires and arms terrorists. they are murderers. the world must stop putin. that gives you a sign how quickly this can escalate in eastern ukraine. >> certainly could be a major, major game-changer. this is a huge,