a ukrainian helicopter and claimed responsibility for shooting down a ukrainian fighter jet. moreover, we know that these separatists have received a steady flow of support from russia. this includes arms and training. it includes heavy weaponses and it includes anti-aircraft weapons. here is what happens now. this was a global tragedy. an asian airliner was destroyed in european skies filled with citizens from many countries. there has to be a credible international investigation into what happened. the u.n. security council has endorsed this investigation, and we will hold all of its members including russia to their word in order to facilitate that investigation, russia, pro-russian separatists and ukraine must adhere to an immediate cease-fire. evidence must not be tampered with. investigators need to access the crash site and the forward pant november loved ones needs to go forward. we have offered support of the fbi and the national transportation safety board which has experience in working with international partners on these types office of investigations. they are o

>> i'm actually where the ukrainian military has its headquarters in eastern ukraine, and the ukrainian military has been telling us they believe the jet was shot down by a buk missile produced in russia. it's not clear how the rebels got this contraption that can shoot up to 15 kilometers into the air, apparently. but they're blaming -- they're blaming the pro-russian spra separatists for shooting down the plane. >> do they believe it was the spra separatists, themselves, who fired it or the russians who fired it? >> the ukrainians have been saying all along there are a lot of russian citizens and special forces among the rebels. they believe that the entire rebel movement is controlled from moscow. it's confirmed that many of the leaders of the separatists are russian citizens, self-admittedly one of them recently said he was an fsb, russian state security services, he said he was a colonel of the fsb up until 2013. he's not even hiding that. but whether this is -- the russians, they deny that they're involved on an official level. they don't control the rebels and it's up to ukraine

, a ukrainian fighter jet was also shot down in ukrainian airspace great in both instances, the ukrainian government believes these lanes were fired on from russian territory. russian actions that the united states impose sanction on the defense, energy, and financial sectors of the russian economy. these measures include freezing the assets of russian defense companies and blocking new financing of some of russia's most important banks and energy companies. the sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted, designed to had the maximum impact on the russian calculus while limiting the impact on the russian people and limiting any spillover effects on our interests or those of our allies. the european union has announced expanded sanctions against russia this week. the message is unified and clear. if president putin continues to choose escalation over de-escalation, the international community will continue to impose costs on russia. this is not what any of us want. we and our allies remain committed to a diplomatic solution, as are the ukrainian government and ukrainian people, w

the ukrainian army, ukrainian government saying it was the rebels. we don't know at the moment whether it was shot down at all, but it was clear the plane was flying over an area in which planes have been tumbling out of the sky in the last few days, and ukraine has been pointing the finger blamed squarely at russia for at least one of those. it was saying earlier today the russian army or russian air force, or russian jets had shot down a fighter jet plane that was flying in ukrainian air space yesterday, on wednesday evening. so this is still a situation where -- you know, the information is coming in. we're going to have to get more when it arrives. >> right. all right. rory i was just going to ask you about -- you know, as you said, ukraine has accused the russians of supporting the separatists on the ground in eastern ukraine. what sort of evidence do the ukrainians have, and do we know if it turns out to be -- what sort of support has russia been providing to the separatists? the >> well, that is the big gray area. how much support has russia b

it is certainly an early assessment from ukrainian officials but for what it's worth, ukrainian officials have no doubt that pro-russian separatists brought this plane down and say these are weapons -- they blame the russians, as well. i was speaking to the deputy foreign minister a short time ago. he said putin is responsible in his words, the world needs to stop putin because russia supports terrorist actions like this which is what the ukrainian president called this, a terrorist action. >> in fact, the former united states ambassador to the russian federation, michael mcfaul earlier today said that a man named igor gerg condition, who is a former member of russian intelligence, military intelligence and a former member of the fsb who is now a pro-russian separatist in ukraine head of the people's militia, that he admitted and bragged about shooting down the plane although his people later said that was a fake account. what do we know about that? >> this is another piece of evidence. i was first tipped off to this by ukrainian officials earlier this morning thatting this pro-russian se

but several ukrainian -- two ukrainian planes have been brought down earlier this week. so whether or not whoever brought down this plane realized it was a passenger jet, that is simply not clear. the intent is certainly not clear at this point. but the result, and you see the video of it right there, is very clear. 295 people on board. no word on the number of fatalities, though it would be certainly hard to imagine a plane being shut down at 33,000 feet that anyone could have survived. our nick paton walsh is standing by. as we continue to look at these images at what is pieces of this malaysian airliner. let's just review for our viewers who are joining us what we know, and as importantly what we don't know yet at this point. >> the ukrainian president, petro poroshenko, said on a statement on his website that at about 4:20, this plane, a boeing 777, disappeared from radar screens. now, he went on to point out that that's the third plane to crash in that area in recent days. the previous two he said shot down from russian territory. ukrainian transport plane and a mil

ukrainian separatists? >> the ukrainian government in kiev. the separatists -- you know, i don't know because they are russian, as we know. they're not separate, russians and separatists. we all know that. the head of the separatists is a kgb army guy or fsb army guy. whether they gave them that capability or whether it was a russian capability is really almost a difference without -- a distinction without a difference. but again, we don't want to jump to conclusions until we have absolute facts of the case. >> do you have any information about people on board, if there were any americans on board this flight? have you been given any kind of a briefing at this point? >> no, we have not. i just talked to some intel people, and they aren't sure yet exactly what happened here. you know, it's horrific. i remember back when they shot down a korean airliner and the repercussions that had throughout the world. and this is even worse in many respects. >> how closely -- i mean, obviously, you have been watching the

she has been speaking to ukrainian officials about the crash. what more are they telling you. >> the security council has been meeting on libya. and we're trying to get reaction from other ambassadors. we know the russian ambassador left early and alerted media that we were waiting outside to question him about this crash. this plane went down in an area where fighting is happening, they say. the plane was shot down wednesday another was shot down. and they have blamed russia for being blamed for these attacks. whether it is coming from the russian side of the border, or the ukrainian side of the border they can't say for sure, but this is their belief. now russia has denied any involvement in the shooting down of ukrainian military planes. the russian ambassador himself told me we didn't do it. but they have not reacted from here at the united nations to this latest crash of the malaysian jet liner. >> christine thank you very much. let's now speak to our diplomatic editor james bayes who joins us from london. there has been tit-for-tat accusat

breaking news from malaysia airlines say ukrainian air traffic controllers told their ill fated plane to fly lower than the planned altitude before the jet crashed killing all passengers and crew. and grief stricken relatives struggle to come to terms with the tragedy in which the majority of victims were dutch nationals. the russian defense ministry says it has been tracking signals from the ukrainian army's radars and found that they were in use and in range of the plane at the time of the crash. neil harvey and you're watching international. new information has come to light in the tragedy involving a malaysian airlines plane that went down in ukraine killing all two hundred ninety eight people on board the air carrier says that before the disaster the plane had dropped to a lower than planned altitude following a request from ukrainian flight controllers the teams are still combing through the wreckage searching for bodies and clues as to the causes of the crash we should warn you that there are some graphic images coming up. so far around half of the bodies have been retrieved fr

the ukrainian military activity in the area has exceeded all. humanly imaginable limits. the shelling of longer injected artillery populated areas people are dying civilians are dying by the dozen of course you recall one their operation started we were assured by some members of the security council that they are going to act with restraint restraint i wonder what guy. of the finishing of restraint they were guided by because what we see is that they're going after the civilian population which. justifies our description of their action as a beautiful bit operation against the population other than engaging whatever armed groups may be in the area so this all amounts to a very ugly very ugly mode of operation contrary to the so-called peace plan and to president poroshenko and to his assurances that the ukrainian military will not be in gauging the civilian population will resort to other methods rather than engaging the civilian population they are directly targeting the civilian population populated areas apartment buildings the hospitals. so this is this is you know t

i want to point out that this tragedy wouldn't have happened if there was peace on the ukrainian land at least if the fighting hadn't had resumed in the south east without any doubt the state on whose territory this happened must stand responsible for this horrible tragedy. obviously it's very easy to jump to conclusions at this stage now some experts have said that the only people in ukraine have the capability the technology to down a plane flying this. on the ukrainian military so you know we'll just have to wait until there are more hard facts known to see what happened to this plane all right but kali right there in front of the kremlin thank you for that. no it is a really good still remaining on the russia ukraine border is one of the latest reports judging by the pictures that it's a miracle that it hasn't hit any of the houses any of the residential houses located in that area at least we do not have any confirmation as to that regard representatives from the self-proclaimed donetsk people's republic are said to have recovered the black boxes the flight data recorders now whe

they were trying to support the line of the ukrainian leadership. aimed at forceful suppressing the uprising in the east. we are continuing our negotiations including the so-called group and a conference in this group and i hope there will be also direct contacts which are necessary for direct dialog which was discussed back in geneva. and i hope that everyone will follow them strict, strictly. what's your questions? a question not about ukraine. that the court in the hague have found the suit against you fair and they said that russia has to pay 50 billion of and the question, is it true that from russia weapons are coming into ukraine? >> translator: with regard to the first question, i've heard that such a verdict is expected. we need to wait for the fact itself. and after that, i will be able to make comments. you have already said that the court hearings have not finished. and it was expected. and besides, the other side will use all the means to prove its position. with regard to ukraine and supply of weapons, i already said that we have had r

also the russian defense ministry says it's been tracking signals from ukrainian army's radars and found that they were in use and didn't range of the plane at the time of the crash. welcome my name to the harvey and you're watching r.t. international. we will start with breaking news coming from malaysia airlines which says that its plane was flying at a lower height than the original route requested rescue teams are now combing through the wreckage of a boeing that went down in ukraine on tuesday they're searching for bodies along with clues to what could have caused the crash this is what the scene looks like all two hundred ninety eight passengers and crew on board were killed in the tragedy we should warn you that there are some graphic images coming up. so far around half of the bodies have been retrieved from the wide field of anti government forces who control that area have denied earlier claims that they had found the flight recorders but insist that when they do they will hand them over to international investigators and we managed to speak to one local woman who lives right n

air defense ukrainian air force now that the book system is just catered. to where a missile and the russians saying that the ukrainians do have this book system in the don't yet area and that there were three of these missile batteries in range of the boeing when it went down they're not saying anything more than that now also. the kremlin spokesman dmitri pursuit of told the british newspaper the guardian that it is stupid to think that russia is culpable for this and we know that president putin has also said that ukraine lost their responsibility for this act for this tragedy happened over ukrainian territory and if there was peace in eastern ukraine then it never would have happened this is what the president had to say earlier. you know we have to do everything in our capability to make sure an objective picture of what happened is made public and known to people in our country as well as the people of ukraine and the whole world what happened is completely unacceptable and no one has the right to walk away without making ject of conclusion of what ha

they have brought down a ukrainian military aircraft, two other ukrainian military aircraft the last several days. there's still a lot we don't know. jim sciutto is joining us in washington. jim, let's just kind of review if we could the information that we have now that you have been getting. you have been talking to ukrainian authorities a lot. you have been talking to folks from nato. lay out the broad picture, kind of the broad brush for those who are just joining us. >> well, i'll tell you, the perspective of ukrainian officials, and it is good that we add a caveat here, because there are political elements involved in this conflict that would lead ukrainian officials to immediately point the finger at pro-russian separatists or indeed russia. but they are indeed doing that. and they're taking it out of the theoretical category and saying explicitly they believe this plane was shot down. and, in fact, with specificity, saying they believe it was a russian-made buk, b-u-k, missile system, used to take it down at altitude of 33,000 feet. and in speaking with them, they made the po

an entire family has been killed in the eastern ukrainian city of they were among civilian lives lost in heavy shelling some graphic images have emerged from the city apparently showing residential areas coming under fire. from the combat in the region forces international teams to scrap their plans to travel to the malaysian plane crash site. launches an offensive on the nearby town. also this week russia's defense ministry. data suggesting there was a second plane near the malaysian airliner possibly a ukrainian military fighter while the u.s. is being pressurized to present its own evidence to the accusations against moscow is there a you tube video shortly that you can point to washington maintains russia is aiding the local militia in eastern ukraine animals involved in the crash but refuses to specify the source of the information. also coming up a humanitarian true struggles to hold. in israel forces fail to reach a cease fire deal with israel following more naval attacks in retaliation to rocket fire. welcome to the weekly here in r t international the top stories from the pas

just in the last 24 hours a ukrainian fighter jet also taken down alleged by ukrainian officials. charges now coming from the new government in kiev against russia. wolf. >> jim, if pro-russian separatists in ukraine got ahold of this kind of sophisticated ground-to-air missile, where would they get that from? that's a pretty sophisticated missile. >> it is. this is some of the evidence that ukrainian officials have cited to me in attaching blame to the pro-russian separatists. in that two weeks ago pro-russian separatists overran a military base and acquired one of these buk surface-to-air missile systems and at the time they advertised photographs of the captured missile system. and they go on to say the missile system has the capability to hit a plane at the altitude that a passenger jet would be flying, above 30,000 feet. u.s. officials have not established that this kind of missile system has done this but ukrainian officials are drawing a connection between that missile launcher captured two weeks ago and this plane shot down today. >> jim sciutto, stand by. this plane was s

the ukrainians, and the russians. the you drainians are hardly likely to shoot down anything over their own territory, especially one obviously coming out of amsterdam. so the question is why have the russianed sophisticated power they would be, decided to shoot down an airliner. >> we with don't know that yet, because the russians are denying any involve innocent in shooting this down. >> no no. but nobody else get up that high. so nobody else can get up that high, apart from the ukrainian military -- this isn't a toy that's given to sort of gones and terrorists, it's far too sophisticated for them. only a professional military force can operate this particular service to a missile. there's only two in town that could have done it, the ukrainians and the russians. one with has to wonder why they would have done it. >> obviously a lot of unanswered questions at this time. have crashed officials in ukraine, saying that the plane was shot down by a sur is pass to aramis seal. this information, obviously not confirmed ri

on wednesday a ukrainian fighter jet was shot down in ukrainian airspace. the ukrainian government believes these planes were fired on by russian territory. continued of these destabilizing actions that the united states imposed sanctions on the defense, and financial sectors of the economy. him these include freezing the assets of russian defense blocking some of the most important companies. these are significant and also targeted. , designed to have the maximum impact on the calculus while limiting spillover effects. the european union has announced expanded sanctions against russia this week. if president putin continues to de-escalation, this is not what any of us want. remainour allies committed to a diplomatic solution, as is the ukrainian government and ukrainian people who have seen their neighbors, friends, and family members killed in the needless conflict. he proposed a comprehensive peace plan and declared a unilateral cease-fire, both of which were cynically object did. to plan offered amnesty separatists who lay down their arms voluntarily an

russian territory into ukrainian territory. we have not been able to verify either of those shoot downs. the accusations have been made. we need to be very careful here. there is a conflict going on and there are still plenty of other theories that would be possible ofthis came down by force man. >> i want to go to our aviation consultant. 777, similar to airlinesng malaysian plane that had not been found. this plane had a good safety record. >> a superlative safety record. it has been one of the most spectacular, safe launches of any jetliner in the history of jetliners. is are still, always possibility something completely unprecedented could happen, but there is no reason to believe this triple seven is the type of airplane that would, part in fight -- that would come apart in flight. everything is on the table. you are absolutely right. the data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder will be found and can be debriefed. on top of that, when we figure fromhe dissent profile 30,000 feet, we will know. >> jon karl is standing by

over, cra ukrainian territory. it's still unknown whether it was pilot error, some kind of mechanical error or some sort of other action. and if so, from which side. michael mcfaul joining me, former ambassador to russia. you know all of the tensions. michael mcfaul, stanford professor as well richard engel joining me. our chief foreign correspondent who is right now joining us from the middle east where he's been covering gaza and the continuing struggles with israel. there is still, i assume, a temporary cease-fire, the humanitarian cease-fire and negotiations internationally for a longer cease-fire. but you know eastern ukraine and the situation in ukraine and the kiev government's failure to continue a cease-fire with the separatists. this has been escalating over recent weeks. >> first of all, on the situation here in gaza, since it's happening right behind me there is no cease-fire under way right now. in fact, we've been seeing rockets flying from the city. we've been watching some of the smoke trails leavin

by a missile, shot down the ukrainian government says, by ukrainian separatists who are agitating to join russia. this kind of thing has happened tragically before. we -- many of us recall the day that the russians shot down a korean airlines 747 over the kamkachka peninsula. so to recap for you, we have a malaysian airlines 777, apparently downed in ukraine, over an area where there has been a great deal of combat. this is a picture of a malaysian 777, though not the one involved we don't believe, today. malaysian airline 17. these are the only pictures we have from the scene at the moment. obviously a great deal of black smoke rising in the distance there. this is a picture from eastern ukraine, not far from the russian border. ukrainian government is claiming that the aircraft was shot down by ukrainian rebels who are operating in the eastern half of the country. bob orr is in washington for us covers national security and aviation over many many years. bob what can you add? >> scott whatever happened here happened very suddenly. and obviously without any knowledge on the part of

our headlines an entire family has been killed in the eastern ukrainian city of. they were among civilians lost in heavy army shelling some graphic images have emerged from the city partly showing residential areas coming under fire. in the in the region forces international teams. to travel to the malaysian plane crash site as the ukrainian army launches an offensive on the nearby. ministry revealed on radar data suggesting there was a second plane in the malaysian airliner possibly a military fighter while the u.s. is being pressured to present its own evidence that the accusations against. there are a you tube video or something that you can only does to washington montagne russia is aiding the local militia in eastern ukraine and was involved in the crush refuses to specify the source of the information. on the humanitarian true struggles to hold an. israeli forces fail to reach a cease fire deal with israel following more naval and ground attacks in retaliation to rocket fire. you're very welcome to the weekly here in r.t. international wrap up of the top sto

our headlines this hour an entire family has been killed by a fire in the eastern ukrainian city. some graphic images of emerge from the city showing residential areas coming. on the conflict in the region forces international experts to. travel to the malaysian plane crash site. launches an offensive on the nearby town. also this week russia's defense ministry released on radar data suggesting there was a second plane near the malaysian airliner possibly a ukrainian military fighter jet while the u.s. is urged to present evidence to. moscow. a you tube video that you can play goes to washington maintains russia is aiding militia fighters in eastern ukraine and was involved in the dawning of flight m.h. seventeen but refuses to specify the source of the info. in humanitarian true struggles to hold. an israeli forces failed to reach a cease fire deal with israel. naval attacks in retaliation to rocket fire. welcome to the weekly an r t international wrap up of the top stories from the past seven days plus right up to the moment developments as well my names you know neal our top st

supports the ukrainian call for cease-fire, yet the ukrainians obviously escalating things on their own. it almost seems like people are talking about both sides of their mouths. >> it often happens on the battlefield. everybody looks to create their own strongest position. it may well be that what the ukrainians are trying to do it to continue to push the separatists out, push them back to the border, take territory away from them and recapture key areas in eastern ukraine. the battlefield problem is what will the russians do about this? how will they react? because they have been sending heavy weapons across the border to bolster the separatists, so they can counterattack against the ukrainians and keep ahold of the territory they have. this battle is really turning into just all-out ground combat and of course the concern is that it will be ukrainian civilians once again caught in the middle. >> all right, barbara starr, at the pentagon. elise laboltt at the state department. and let's go to nick peyton walsh, the investigators were turn away because of all the violence. nick, it has

my message here, crimea is -- was ukrainian, is ukrainian, is will be ukrainian in the future. we have vision for that. we will never stop fighting for crimea as a part of ukrainian territory. we have a lot not just of ukrainians, not just crimeans, who are against this occupation and annexation. we have a lot of russian speaking people in the crimea who do believe it's an act of aggression and the mood actually has been changing. the mood has been changing in crimea. the mood has been changing a couple of months ago under russian propaganda, the people were extremely cautious about embracing the ideas, the ideas of freedom and democracy. with the wide range in decentralization, we're ready to give people more freedom but also more responsibility. now the mood in the crimea has been changing considerably. a lot of people got to understand are going nowhere. it's a dead end. of course, it's about our commitment but it's also about commitment of the whole international community to ukraine, to its independence, to viability of borders and also commitment to assist and to help. we

this is ukrainian air space controlled by ukrainian authorities.nd i would prefer them to speak to that. on your second question, i think the president has been very clear about the responsibilities and obligations of what president putin and moscow are right now, which is to diska late the tension, and cease support for the separatists activities which in some cases has intensified. >> reporter: even since yesterday's incident? >> i don't know a big delta from yesterday to today, but we haven't seen any sign that it's not -- that it -- that it is stopping, yeah. >> reporter: admiral previous to yesterday's tragedy, there had been two or three, at least ukrainian transport planes shot down, does your intelligence and your knowledge indicate that the system that shot down the plane yesterday was a more powerful, more sophisticated system requiring more training or was it similar to the system that was used to shoot down the ukrainian transport planes? >> it's -- again, we're investigating this right now. it's unclear exactly what brought down the --

at least fifteen civilians were killed and up to sixty injured when the ukrainian army shelled one of the hubs of resistance please be warned the some of the videos were about to show you a quite graphic mortar shells landed in residential areas of the city of lugansk several civilians at this bus stop among the victims blocks of flats a kindergarten and a school being used as a shelter also hit in the attack is how one witness describes the cause. for all that all. involved audio did you just heard an awful. look like you would read further. were you to perform for you the story you see on the other. the floor your brother or the other where you live the other the able if you can hear what you were given what you heard was a little bit of those cues. a human rights watch says the ukrainian army may have committed a war crime when it killed sixteen civilians with unguided grad rockets and they don't yet region. the group say the grad system is just too and accurate to be used on populated areas human rights watch is calling on both sides of the conflict to stop using this kind of weap

blaming instead ukrainian armed forces. meanwhile, ukrainian president petro poroshenko is quoted saying his country's armed forces didn't shoot down the plane. a lot of confusion right now. a lot of volatility. we're going to go to a number of experts on different facets of this. joining me to start things off, msnbc aviation analyst and pilot john cox. thank you for being here. first of all, tell us right off the bat, what does this crash look like to you? >> well, it is still very, very, very early. one of the tell-tale signs is the size of the debris field being pretty large as reported. and that could indicate that something happened in flight. and what i mean by that is the airplane didn't impact the ground in a single piece. so i think that's something that everyone, the investigators are going to look at very carefully. and i want to urge some caution about making sure we have a good understanding and verified data because right now we -- it's a lot of this is single source information. and it's very early. we need

well indeed i am with the russian ukrainian the border quite far actually from the scene of the crash nevertheless that we can say with certainty that the area where the plane has come down is definitely not something that you would call peaceful it was indeed the site of some of the most intense fighting between the key of forces and the ukrainian military over the past couple of weeks on tuesday as a matter of fact the very location where the most of the plane debris has fallen that was the site of extremely intense bombing by ukrainian military on the ground despite the fact that ukrainian military has issued assurances that they will not be targeting civilian or residential areas and homes in the region nevertheless they obviously seem to have failed to do so. and now of course there's information that flight data recorders at least one of them has been recovered by the self-defense forces a neighbor promising to be on their word to investigators and indeed ukraine has launched an investigative case into the reasons for the plane crash of m.h. seventeen however there have been inc

they instead are blaming ukrainian armed forces. you can not believe anything that is being said right now because the first information from these rebels was, hey, we were trying to shoot down a ukrainian military vehicle, military aircraft. that is what they said first. the separatists are now saying, no, we didn't shoot anything. ukrainian armed forces did this. that does not stand to reason. that is not to say that is impossible but i can tell you the intelligence is on the ground and in the air and whatever did happen we won't have to rely on anybody from malaysian airlines thankfully to know. because we'll know because our people are there and our satellites are there and our intelligence is on the ground. this matter who was on board, they're traveling from amsterdam to kuala lumpur, it wait a minute full but with 295 people on board it is close to full. back to sky news. >> i would have thought so. if you look at any historical book on warfare, who was shot down by whom at what time, difficult to put down after number of yea

is not pointing the blame thing there just yet president obama spoke with the ukrainian leader. we can be sure that the blame game in the coming days and weeks is going to be vicious there are questions as to who had the capability to do this the ukrainian military certainly has the capability to launch like that would require a team of specialists as we hear from many experts and there is another question why was this malaysian airline flying over the conflict zone we know that u.s. airlines had been avoiding the area for some time precisely because it was deemed unsafe what kind of instructions did this plane receive from the ukrainian air traffic control or what exactly was happening inside the cockpit just moments before the tragedy hopefully we'll get more answers when investigators get hold of that black box of course one of the main questions at this point is who is going to investigate this the u.n. secretary general spoke out calling for an international investigation one of the concerns moving forward is that the investigation could eventually be politicized the blame

i was taken by the ukrainian military scare poor tuesday night there was held in captivity by them i was put in a room next to an artillery position that they were firing heavily from that was being fired on i was kept in a cell or was detained along with another journalist for dean who was beaten in front of me i saw soldiers you know kick him in the face and then a soldier said if you can confirm my details and he couldn't guarantee that i was going to live i was blindfolded we were kept in a cell without water or toilet facilities and then we were separated i was interrogated i was interrogated all day i was called a terrorist i was told i had a russian passport i was a russian spy they were telling me all day that i had entered ukraine through ukraine and entered it through russia it's all completely completely falls through accusing me of working for terrorists all of these accusations and interrogations and then they took my computer they took my things and i've just go are just recently been released and i was on the train to warsaw coming from the polish border and i just rec

a young couple and their child have been killed during a ukrainian military operation in goal of the army says it has surrounded the eastern city which came under heavy shelling early on sunday warning to viewers disturbing images coming up. it was the old part of the people who were supporting. football opposed feel. to the market. just a little. is not. just a view in the. morning to evening. at least thirteen people including two children died in got off guard during sunday's bombardment the city is our strategic importance for the army providing a clear path to the major flashpoint city after any of his local residents account of what has been happening. and will go out of order it was a strike on the city most likely from a grad rocket systems there is a very popular supermarket in the city center when the shell fell on to it there were a lot of customers that another fell in a residential yard in another near the city's maternity home causing the windows to blow out explosions could be heard all through the day starting from four in the morning they simply raising us to the gro

was the ukrainian military it was the bottom of the. air defense forces. or certainly. what we know about the professional training of the ukraine army in general we know it to be very very poor. i guess if it was instead of using the word about it look at career officers being just used conscripts. their equipment. the opinion of aviation expert and it was eerie kalash that we're hearing from. and just to recap he basically was saying that this is a reliable plane so it is a professional opinion it's going to take in something an external factor here something untoward to have brought that to the ground in his experience and as well as you know the people are going to be drawing parallels with what happened on the eighth of march as well incredibly so malaysian airlines plane went missing this is a malaysian airlines plane as well there's going to be all types of coming out. to tell you what let's go to who as i keep saying has been following this story we're getting information she's getting information can you keep us going to stop the what's coming in because even a

says two hundred fifty thousand ukrainians have left their home. ukraine since the fighting began the state department had doubted the sources of the un's previous reports on ukrainian refugees and many russians from ukraine have family in russia some may be staying with them but neither ukrainian border guards or nor international organizations operating the area have or boarded any large outflows of refugees to russia but now we do colleges possibly for the first time that there is a humanitarian crisis inside ukraine i can't confirm those numbers i quite frankly haven't seen that from a u.n. report so i'm happy to fact check that for you and see if we can confirm what we think the numbers are we know there is a humanitarian crisis here in the city for him believes ukrainian military posts came under fire from the russian territory the spokesperson did not go into detail of where such information comes from you are that artillery russian territory. military is going into a not your immediate military outpost but you are convinced you see no indic

the ukrainians are not asking for it. a large portion of the ukrainian people don't want to be in it. and i think in that context, it would be possible to negotiate it. tw the ukrainians not being promised or having to open for them in the future with nato. one can understand the russian concerns here. nato membership with just a large new area, deep into what traditionally has been the russian empire and create an altogether new political situation, which i cannot see the russians ever accepting, unless there is a significant accommodation of larger sense, and that's all i had in mind. on the question of the arms, my view is we should be very open about it, and not secretive. and if the ukrainians need arms for their defense, we should be willing to provide them, although in a manner which doesn't provide for -- a capacity of the ukrainians to the offensive actions. if they are very deliberate, we can enhance their capacity, particularly to defend our cities. and make the attempt to occupy the cities tw the russian armed

and many russians from ukraine a family in russia and maybe staying with them but neither ukrainian border guards or nor international organizations operating in the area ever boarded any large out of refugees to russia but now we do colleges possibly for the first time that there is a humanitarian crisis inside ukraine i can't confirm those numbers i quite frankly haven't seen that from u.n. reports so i'm happy to fact check that for you and see if we can confirm what we think the numbers are we know there is a humanitarian crisis here at the state department believes ukrainian military posts came under fire from the russian territory the spokesperson did not go into detail of where such information comes from you are and that artillery russian territory is hitting the military is going to get even out your immediate military out but you are convinced we have seen no indication she's no indication that the opposite is true that ukrainians are something occur while the u.s. state department says no indication that they're watching territory comes under fire from ukraine witnesses w

they blame the ukrainian army. already this ukrainian crisis has plunged russia's relations with the west into a freeze. tonight president obama spoke to president putin about it. >> the united states will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. and as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families and passengers from wherever they call home. >> tonight reports suggest rebels in eastern ukraine may call a truce to let an investigation go ahead. possibly the horror of this crash will achieve a peace that diplomacy has so far failed to bring. but whatever the cause, it could also widen the abyss and make the spiraling conflict much more dangerous. bridget kendall, bbc news. >> and for more on this unfolding story, i'm joined now by mackey, director of the woodrow wilson centers cannon institute. so president putin apparently is pointing the finger at ukraine, the country whose air space happened bodes responsibility for it. this tragedy would not have happened had milita

police thirteen civilians have been killed in the eastern ukrainian city of call of some unverified graphic images have emerged from there apparently showing residential areas hit by heavy army shelling. and the combat in the region forces international teams to scrap their plans to travel to the malaysian plane crash site as ukrainian army launches an offensive on a nearby town. also this week russia's defense ministry revealed its satellite and radar data suggesting there was a second plane near the malaysian airliner possibly a ukrainian military fighter or the u.s. is being pressured to present its own evidence to back the accusations against moscow. a youtube video or something that you can fully trust to washington maintains russia is aiding the local militia in eastern ukraine and was involved in the crash but refuses to specify the source of its information. and a humanitarian truce struggles to hold him garza a massive israeli forces failed to reach a cease fire deal with israel vowing more naval and ground attacks in retaliation to rocket fire. welcome my name is the harvey and yo

i want to point out that this tragedy wouldn't have happened if there was peace on the ukrainian land at least if the fighting hadn't had resumed in the south east without any doubt the state on whose territory this happened must stand responsible for this horrible tragedy and one after another major air carriers are diverting their planes around ukrainian airspace among them the likes of air france. or europe's transport agency euro control has advised all e.u. carriers to avoid ukraine's aspace as a more details on this now and join artie's peter all of a life for us in the peter the international response to this has been a fast coming this morning. yes we heard a short statement from german chancellor angela merkel in which she said she was shocked and expressed her condolences to those to the families of those who have been killed who are expecting a further statement from her in a few hours time that go into a little bit more depth also the german foreign minister. said that there must be an international investigation into what happened here and said that it was one of those si

some journalists have taken sides to the point that when the ukrainian president said this ukrainian nation now are united we don't have any conflicts inside ukrainian he was not picked up on it even as pictures and video poor end of the war raging in the country since. the us media is once again taking aim at our t.v. or what c.n.n. discussed as the impact of russia's media machine for all the talk about propaganda which by definition is you know misinformation i would say russia's when it chris cuomo and r.t. spittle of l became a you tube head after a heated interview maybe you haven't been following it but the u.s. is actually coming out with a lot of its own intelligence are bad connects what happened i made seventeen to the acts of russian militants and perhaps of the involvement of russia in either training equipping or maybe even assisting life when this what a horrible operation frantically to atlanta are you talking about what what forensic evidence are you referring to. twitter very or release intelligence information about the trajectory no not twitter i do not think pete

is not pointing the blame thinker just yet president obama spoke with the ukrainian leader. we can be sure that the blame game in the coming days and weeks is going to be vicious there are questions as to who had the capability to do this the ukrainian military certainly has the capability a launch like that would require a team of specialists as we hear from many experts and there is another question why was this malaysian airline flying over the conflict zone we know that u.s. airlines had been avoiding the area for some time to size me because it was deemed unsafe what kind of instructions that this plane would see from the. well what exactly was happening inside the cockpit just moments before the tragedy hopefully we'll get more answers when investigators get hold of the black box of course one of the main questions at this point is who is going to investigate this the u.n. secretary general spoke out calling for an international investigation one of the concerns moving forward is that the investigation could eventually be politicized the blame game is for lawn in the m

there's a brutal operation by the ukrainian government, ukrainian military. and there are people who are referred to as militants or in other ways who are fighting for their cause. going into detail is not part of the russian coverage. however, it is well known that planes have been down several times already during this conflict by the pro-russian separatists. this, in itself, serves as indirect evidence pointing to pro-russian separatists as maybe responsible for the tragedy. >> maria in moscow, thank you for giving us an interesting perspective on the situation going on. we appreciate your time. in response to the downing of flight 17, faa expanded flight restrictions over yeern ukraine. >> there are questions about the route flight 17 pilots took on their way to kuala lumpur. most have been avoiding that air space because of this fighting below. >> indra petersons is taking a look at the dangerous air space over the region. >> good morning. it's important to know, this was not in a restricted air space. the original air space included crimea and the black

with the ukrainians shot it down? think it is far more likely rebels in eastern ukraine trying to get the russians and everybody back involved. the russians are not fighting an overall war. they are fighting what they call a "phony" war. they are not doing it with russian badges on or russian uniforms, they are doing it because they don't want to own it. they want to look like it is really just the rebels. so then the question becomes why would the ukrainian rebels shoot it down. they are losing right now, they are being surrounded. maybe this is a last ditch attempt to stir things up again and get the russians to resign. >> there is a statement from the ukraine president acknowledging the incidents that have happened in recent days, the third major tragic accident. the key is basically saying he is not ruling out at this time this plane was shot down. >> i wanted to talk a little bit about how the white house would assert themselves o in any kindf way because the president and putin spoke yesterday about the tough sa

ukrainian planes. and you hear in those conversations they are surprised, in effect, thinking that it was an an-26. this is a ukrainian military plane. and there's other evidence even beyond that recorded phone conversation because one of these rebel leaders amazingly tweeted the time at around the time that the plane went down that they had just shot down a ukrainian plane. that tweet was later deleted, but that is more evidence cited by ukrainian officials. and just one more thing, this buk system, it's a russian made surface-to-air missile launcher, ukrainian separatists, pro russian separatists kparptd it june 29th, when they captured it, they bragged about it, on twitter. they showed a picture of it in fact. a tweet that showed this missile system and that was more evidence that ukrainian officials cited with their early suspicions that it was exactly this kind of launcher that took this plane down and u.s. officials believe the same. >> we'll wait to hear what the president has to say about this

is not pointing the blame thing or just yet president obama spoke with the ukrainian leader. we can be sure that the blame game in the coming days and weeks is going to be vicious there are questions as to who had the capability to do this the ukrainian military certainly has the capability a launch like that would require a team of specialists as we hear from many experts and there is another question why was this malaysian airliner flying over the conflict zone we know that u.s. airlines had been avoiding the area for some time precisely because it was deemed unsafe what kind of instructions that this plane was see from the ukrainian air traffic control and what exactly was happening inside the cockpit just moments before the tragedy hopefully we'll get more answers when investigators get hold of that black box of course one of the main questions at this point is who is going to investigate this the u.n. secretary general spoke out calling for an international investigation one of the concerns moving forward is that the investigation could eventually be politicized the blam

this is international news coming through it's thought ukrainian troops to storming the city of lugansk already controlled by anti government forces the day after artillery attacks on another regional hub suburbs left multiple civilian casualties . a russian citizen is killed by a shell fired from ukraine moscow warns of heavy consequences but kiev denies attacking russian territory. in other news. the deadliest might be really bombings pushes the number of palestinian deaths now to over one hundred sixty one israeli commandos briefly enter gaza raided militant rocket site. there are look at the week's news body by birth in germany expels a top cia official after arresting two government employees for passing secrets to u.s. intelligence. below this is the weekly around of the big stories of the last seven days and will make your headlines coming through it was right now in fact over the last hour reports coming through that the ukrainian army is moving in to the eastern hub of lugansk with large numbers of tanks apparently approaching that city anti-government fighters say schools alre