A Malaysia Airlines plane with more than 300 passengers and crew members crashed in Ukraine near the border with Russia, killing all 300 passengers and crew members.
The British Telegraph writes that the Ukrainian security services claim to have intercepted a conversation that proves that Russia and pro-Russian separatists are responsible for the downing of the passenger plane.
"Kiev Post" translated the conversation published by the Ukrainian government. The first conversation reportedly takes place between a Russian intelligence officer and a separatist commander.
"We just shot down a plane," says the officer.
The second call, again allegedly, takes place between two separatists, one of whom investigates the crash site, where they learn to their own surprise that the flight was civilian.
"It is 100 percent a passenger plane. Damn it! The remains fell right into the yards of the houses," says one of them.
Meanwhile, Great Britain requested an urgent meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) to discuss the crisis in Ukraine after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in the east of the country under the control of pro-Russian forces, a Foreign Office diplomat announced today.
The meeting will probably be held tomorrow.
Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Yuri Sergeev, announced on Twitter after the plane crash that "Ukraine will present evidence of the involvement of the Russian military in the Boeing crash."
"This crime should be fully investigated," Sergeev said.
Among the passengers were 23 American citizens
Among them were 23 American citizens, said a source from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
"More than 300 innocent people were killed... 23 American citizens are known to have died," Zorjan Shkirjak, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, told Interfax, as reported by Reuters.
"Flights are prohibited over the Donetsk region, due to the armed conflicts there. We need to determine how the Boeing got there," said the president of the Federal Union of Flight Controllers, Sergey Kovalev, for the Russian Gazeta.
The head of Ukrainian air traffic control said that the Malaysian plane was flying perfectly normally before it disappeared from the radar.
As reported by Reuters, it is a Boeing that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Positions from where the plane took off and where it crashed (photo: Flightaware)
It was shot down in the Donetsk region, about 60 km from the border with Russia, where pro-Russian activists and the Ukrainian army are fighting.
Pro-Russian separatists from eastern Ukraine said they found the black box of the downed Malaysian plane, Interfax reported.
Airlines bypass Ukraine
After the crash of the Malaysian plane in Ukraine near the border with Russia, many airlines announced that they will not fly over the territory of Ukraine.
As AFP reports, Air France has decided to avoid the east of Ukraine, while Reuters reports a statement from the Russian airline Transaero, which states that it will avoid Ukrainian airspace for all future flights after the accident with the Malaysian plane.
The Lufthansa airline announced that it had decided that its planes should immediately begin avoiding the airspace over eastern Ukraine.
Also, according to Reuters, Turkish Airlines will not fly over Ukraine until further notice.
Russian Aeroflot also announced. Namely, the company states that it will not fly over the territory of Ukraine, and this was also confirmed by the British Virgin, Alitalia, British Airways, and Emirates.
Poroshenko: This is terrorism
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, believes that the downing of the Malaysian plane was the result of a "terrorist act".
"Poroshenko's position on the downing of the plane is as follows: it is not an incident, nor a disaster, but a terrorist act," said his adviser for the media, Svatoslav Cegolko.
The Dutch Prime Minister decided to return to the country from the summit in Brussels, after the news of the crash of the plane that took off from Amsterdam.
Remains of the plane after the crash (Photo: Reuters)
"I am deeply shocked by the dramatic report about the plane crash," he said, noting that he was in contact with the president of Ukraine. Tour operators told local media that Dutch citizens had dozens of reservations on this flight.
"A lot is still unclear regarding the facts, circumstances and passengers," he said.
Putin and Obama talked, the US offers help
The Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation that the plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory. The two leaders had a previously planned conversation about the situation in Ukraine, during which information about the downing of a passenger plane arrived.
Obama called the downing of the plane a "terrible tragedy" and that the United States would offer any kind of assistance necessary to help determine what happened and why.
US Vice President Joseph Biden offered Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko US assistance in the investigation into the downing of the Malaysian plane on the territory of Ukraine.
Biden offered US help in a phone conversation with Poroshenko, the White House announced, reports Reuters.
Donetsk authorities: The plane was shot down by Ukrainian forces
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was shocked by the downing of the passenger plane, launching an urgent investigation into the incident.
Separatist leader Aleksandar Borodaj said that the Malaysian plane was shot down by Ukrainian government troops, which Kiev denied.
According to an official of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, at least one hundred bodies can be seen at the scene, whose parts are scattered "up to 15 km" from the accident site, Reuters reported.
Some time later, through their Twitter account, they announced that they had lost contact with the MH17 plane, while it was in the airspace over Ukraine.
The plane was shot down while it was at an altitude of 10 kilometers, reports Interfax.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashenko said that 280 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
Interfax reports that a source from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Also, a source from that ministry claimed that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic has denied involvement in this incident, as its defense forces do not have such weapons.
"The plane was shot down by Ukrainian forces. We do not have such defense systems, our missiles have a range of three to four thousand meters, and the Boeing flies at higher altitudes," said Sergej Kavartadze, a representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic. They accused the Ukrainian authorities of shooting down this plane.
Kuala Limpur Airport website is down.
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