you met with igor bezler, nicknamed the demon. is he a good guy? sweet (laughter) he's actually a bit of a loose canon -- >> stephen: is he one of the volunteers? >> he's one of the leaders of the volunteers. he's not even a ukrainian citizen, so it's weird he's fighting for this ukrainian movement, for ukraine to secede and join russia. he was born in soviet crimea. >> stephen: he's one of the leaders of this group who's trying to break away. >> mm-hmm. >> stephen: in donetsk? am i pronouncing that right? >> mm-hmm. >> stephen: is that russian for "little doughnut"? >> no, i think because of the river it's called that. >> stephen: okay. (laughter) if i'm not mistaken, this bezler is one of the guys who the ukrainians say they have a recording saying "we just shot down a plane." >> uh-huh. >> stephen: is he upset or happy they shot down a plane. >> he's a little flustered. he swears a lot and said, man, seriously, this is 100% a civilian plane. what's interesting is his handler in russia is saying, oh, they must have just been dropping off their sp

igor bezler has been identified by the european union as a gru agent, an agent of russia's intelligentgency, a post to a social media site in russia, we w warned them not to fly in our area. videos have been taken showing these buk anti-aircraft missiles moving around. russian state media put out a number of articles in russian recapitulating what the separatists said. they thought they hit a ukrainian cargo plane. when they discovered it was not that, they started to delete. the recording that you played with igor bezler, his voices very distinct and western intelligent officials were quoted as they believe that those leaked conversations were genuine. >> the ukraine government has put these out. obviously the ukraine government -- everybody has their own motives and incentive, but how much weight do you put in those recordings? how much confidence do we have in them? >> i think they are fairly convincing. first, we have to remember, those were released a very short time after the plane was lost. so if they were made up by the ukrainians, that's a really capable propaganda machine. th

. >> reporter: just 20 minutes after the plane went down this man, igor bezler, the self-proclaimed minister of defense for the russian separatists, is heard talking to a russian military intelligence officer according to telephone intercepts released by the ukraine government. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> reporter: ukrainian officials say this is the smoking gun. these telephone intercepts of the separatists reporting back to russian intelligence, sean. >> all right. thank you, jennifer griffin, thanks so much. we're going to be following all the breaking news out of ukraine in this hour, but first we turn to the ongoing crisis in the middle east. israel ramped up its ground offensive. john huddy, the man who never sleeps, the man smack in the middle of the action in gaza city. watch this. >> reporter: okay. [ bleep ] whoa! whoa! whoa! >> john huddy now joins us from gaza. john. >> reporter: yeah, well, sean, during the past 24 hours the fighting has really accelerated here in gaza. that's because as we know now israeli ground forces have crossed the border and they're pushing in d

igor bezler is overheard talking to a russian military intelligence officer in phone intercepts released by the ukraine government. u.s. officials are conducting voice recognition and believe the audio to be authentic. >> translator: we have just shot down a plane. that was miner's group. it fell down outside enakievo. >> pilots, where are the pilots? >> translator: set off to search for the shot down plane. >> how many minutes ago. >> about 30 minutes ago. >> that surface-to-air missile had to come from russia. the training provided to operation that surface-to-air missile system most likely came from russia. >> that was u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel last night, as one well placed western intelligence source put it to me, we are building a case and it's pretty near bulletproof at this point. heather. >> thank you, jennifer. we'll check back with you a little bit later. >>> this is not the first time during a crisis he's been thinking about fund-raisers. he's a president of the strongest country on earth. why isn't he insisting on something happening or organizing something happenin

commanders claim to have shot down a plane just 20 minutes after the plane went down this man, igor bezler, the self-proclaimed minister of defense for the russian separatists is talking to a russian military intelligence officer. the rebel commander is essentially reporting back to a colonel in the russian military's main intelligence department inside russia. >> we have just shot down a plane. that was minor's group. it fell down outside -- >> pilots, where are the pilots? >> they're off to search for the shot-down plane and take pictures. a plume of smoke is visible. >> how many minutes ago. >> about 30 minutes ago. >> ukrainian officials say this is the smoking gun. these telephone intercepts of the separatists reporting back to russian intelligence. charles. >> thank you, jennifer. president obama calling for an immediate cease fiery the area where the plane went down. to the white house and more. >> the president was a bit more cautious than u.n. ambassador power. he said it may be a while before we're certain about who downed the malaysian jetliner but the evidence indicates it was

in fact, just 20 minutes after the plane went down, this man, igor bezler, the self-proclaimed minister of defense tore russian separatist its is talking to a russian military intelligence officer. the rebel commander is essentially reporting back to a colonel in the russian military main intelligence department inside of russia. >> translator: we just shot down a plane. that was miner's group. it fell down outside of. pilots. where are the pilots? set off to search for a shot-down plain to take pictures of it. plume of sneak is visible. how many minutes ago? about 30 minutes ago. >> reporter: important to remember the separatists are current or former members of russian military units and as samantha power just pointed out, when a ukrainian fighter pilot was shot down recently by a russian aircraft, by russian separate tiffs excuse me, she was captured by a separatists but taken to prison in russia. one last thing, eric. u.s. officials tell us there may not have been any americans on board the malaysian night. they're still looking at the documentation as we speak. jon: jennifer, thank

just 20 minutes after the plane went down, one of his lieutenants igor bezler is overheard speaking to another military officer in phone intercepts released by the ukraine government. u.s. officials are conducting voice recognition and believe the audio to be authentic. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> you have just stated the obvious that that surface to air missile had to come from russia. the training provided to operate that surface to air missile system most likely came from russia. >> that was u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel last night. as one well-placed western intelligence source put it to me, we are building a case and it's pretty near bulletproof at this point. julie? >> and where is the fa-11 missile launcher believed to have brought down the plane? do we know? >> reporter: sources tell me they've been watching separatists frantically trying to hide the launcher since the malaysia flight went down. u.s. officials now believe the launcher is likely back across the border in russia. they believe this video is authentic showing the missile launcher heading towards the ru

this man, igor bezler, the self-proclaimed minister of defense for the russian separatist it is is talking to a russian military intelligence officer by the name of geranan the rebel commander is essentially reporting back to a colonel in the ration military main intelligence department inside russia. he is describing how his fighters are examining the wreckage. [speaking native tongue ♪. >> reporter: second intercepted conversation which you played in your introduction is reportedly between two separatist fighters who have gone to inspect the wreckage, bill. bill: jennifer, couple things here. no question about the authenticity of this? >> reporter: right now defense officials say they have no reason to question the authenticity. u.s. intelligence can not confirm independently. they did not intercept the telephone calls but they have no reason to believe these are not real conversations. bill: another question. we know the type of surface-to-air missile took down this plane, right? do these separatists have access to them, and if so, where did they get them? >> reporter: right now what we