Yes, they claimed russian planes invading their airspace. They also claimed the presence of russian troops in Crimea - how much did they counter it with their military forces?
As long as russian planes aren't directly engaging in dogfights, it's safe to assume the Ukraine forces will stay put and only go against unmanned drones. As soon as they dare to attack a russian plane, it likely means war for both sides and both know that - Ukraine and Russia. So they have every reason to NOT shoot on ANY plane, as the separatists don't have any.
The last thing the Ukraine wants, is an official war with Russia.

Just for the value of kooky, clearly this is the result of French-Canadian insurgents.

1. The pro-Russian rebels did it. We heard the audio evidence.

2. It was an ACCIDENT. It was clearly NOT intentional.

3. WHY WAS THE AIRLINER FLYING THOUGH A WAR ZONE??!? IMO, it's really the airliner's fault.

Well, they do have a little problem with a not-quite-Russian plane.
Six tank and one APC were previously destroyed as a result of the first combat flight of the Sukhoi Su-25 strike fighter, seized from the Ukrainian Air Force.
Since it's Russian mass-media and we all know that only the Western ones have the monopoly to being objective, unbiased and honest( (-: ), it's up to you whether to believe it or not.

On a side note, the Boeing was flying at an altitude of 10000 meters. I'm curious whether the pro-feds even have the gear to hit something flying so high.

And the defense minister who founded the Joseph Goebbels research center, did he have no meaningful power at no point^^

More than that, they moved some bodies from the scene to Donetsk and are trying to remove parts of the plane too. If this isn't the proof that they did this, then I don't understand a thing anymore...

Cover uppppp...

yep they did, and they were stupid enough to brag about that all over twitter/facebook/youtube.

As for objectivity - i think we both now that freedom of speech in Russia is unfortunately pretty much non-existent, just take a look on what happened to "Rain" channel and various blogs.

This is an unthinkable tragedy and I feel for all families affected. I have family members who soon will travel and it kills me to imagine them being on this flight or a similar disaster. The war in eastern Ukraine needs a peaceful resolution NOW, we can not forget about it only because the mainstream media did.

With the rebels backtracking on their earlier claims of having capable weapons systems, looting the crash site, delivering the black box to russia and chasing off reporters and investigators at the crash site, I very much doubt either Ukraine or Russia fired the missile.

To me the most likely scenario is that undisciplined rebel crewmen who do not answer to a higher authority decided to shoot without being 100% certain what target they had acquired. Real militaries would err on the side of caution, but weekend warriors finding themselves jacked up on adrenaline in a situation where they have something to shoot at and no sense of what is urgent self-defense and what is a target of opportunity probably wouldn't consider that.

There is probably a 20-something rebel somewhere staring at a wall shaking, full of regret, unless he is already face down in a ditch with his head caved in by other rebels.

As for commercial airlines routing over conflict zones, it is just business as usual. When I flew a similar route in 2008 (Stockholm->Singapore) we crossed most of the length of Afghanistan. I'm not saying the war in Afghanistan was as dangerous as eastern Ukraine is today, but it would still be a pretty bad place to crash, even without the risk of being shot down.

Airspace is three-dimensional. A map of the earth is not very relevant. Many airlines were routing traffic over eastern Ukraine at the time of the disaster because that is just how the business works. They were flying high enough not to be attacked by actual armies. Even so, I don't think anyone would expect even undisciplined and poorly trained rebels to actually pull the trigger on large planes at that distance. We usually do not plan our every day lives around the possibility of being killed by a child with a stolen gun or stolen car because it is so unlikely.

Well, this time, some idiots thinking they are soldiers did. What a complete tragedy. Completely unnecessary too as it was not a case of immediate self-defense. At best you can call it incorrectly acting upon a very loose rebel policy of shooting "anything within our airspace".

If that's so, too bad for them then. Although I'm still not jumping to any conclusions till the investigation is over.
I've read that "Buk" (I assume that's what you are referring to) can detect targets above a certain altitude only with additional tech connected (A Buk missile battery consists of two TELAR and one TEL vehicle.) and without it its range of operation is much less. Well, anyway, time shall tell.
Edit: hold on a second, what's that: "Ukrainian prosecutor general says militants did not seize Ukrainian air defense launchers"? I don't get it. Waiting for the dust to settle.
Concerning the politicians who already place the blame on someone - anyone - aren't they a wonder? If they already know what, how and why happened, maybe the investigators shouldn't waste their time? Just ask those guys, they tell you everything, problem solved, no digging up evidence in close proximity to a war zone, no pressure from the relatives of the deceased, no nothing. Oh, well.

You mean the "Rain" not getting a prolongation of its rental contract? Sorry, I don't own the building, I can't tell you why they can no longer stay. Ask the owners. On a side note, they played it really "smart" with their "Maybe we should have surrendered Leningrad" poll. At least they had the decency to apologize.
Objectivity... everyone claims to be objective these days. It's like a new advertising slogan: "We are objective, trust us." Meh. The mass media strive to be prosperous, objective and well-informed - pick any two qualities out of three. Few leave prosperity out.

No legislative power at the very least. I'm not familiar enough with how much autonomy defense ministers have been granted by the current government, although if you can point me to any key decision-making powers the defense minister has which have been used to impose any kind of nationalist agenda then I'd be quite interested to hear about it.

Also, I assume the defense minister you're referring to is Ihor Tenyukh, who was defense minister for all of one month (end of February to end of March). I haven't been able to find any reference to the two more recent defense ministers (Koval and Heletey) being associated with far-right elements.

MH17 crash: Passengers onboard flight were already dead, claims rebel leader
Reality and human beings are more satiric than any satire could be...

Who said that Putin ever gave the green light for the rebels to ever get a thing.
Answer me this. Why did the Ukraine say they the "rebels" did not have a BUK when they apparently do?

My biggest question is why are the US so quick to blame the "rebels", and were are their Ukrainian CIA agents? Kerry went on air blaming rebels for the plane, as did the Ukrainian "President" with his "it's terrorists" before the Malaysian airline had even officially agreed that it was their plane that had gone down. Are we to assume that the US and Ukraine governments are acting on their own information without backing it up first.
That reminds me of the 45 minuet WMD's in Iraq.



You are in Germany and you should know that history is filled with double dealings The Nazis were going to help the Mexicans fight with the USA, to keep the USA from joining the UK. Whilst the USA was at the same time considering a plan to join against the "oppressive" UK and help the "oppressed" Europeans.
The USA is always looking for a way to join a war, even if it means starting it. As for Putin, he knows that they are broke. They are putting too much effort into starting wars and backing terrorists that in the end all he needs to do (and he knows it too) it give the US a long enough rope and then they will hang themselves.
The problem here really is how long can others wait before they have swallowed too much of this that they then act out and trigger a war.