2014-07-28 09:04:00

Netherlands nix plan to send troops to Ukraine crash site


(Vatican Radio) Ukrainian government forces continue their major offensive against pro-Russian separatists in an effort to gain control over a region where a Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down this month, killing all 298 people on board. The fighting prompted the Netherlands, which lost nearly 200 people in the disaster, to cancel plans for an armed mission to protect the crash site, while the United States expressed concern that rockets were allegedly fired from Russia into eastern Ukraine.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters that the Netherlands and its international partners have concluded that it is not possible to send an international military mission to protect the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

He warned there was a real risk that such an armed mission would become directly involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. "The area is controlled by separatists who have many armed forces near the Russian border,"Rutte explained. "Getting the military upper hand for an international mission in this area is, according to our conclusion, not realistic...Not even if we choose for a massive military commitment."

He spoke after dozens of unarmed Australian and Dutch police as well as experts suffered a major setback Sunday.

MASSIVE FIGHTING

Massive fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists forced them to abandon plans to visit the crash site, where human remains still lie on burnt ground between debris, said Alexander Hug, deputy head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s monitoring mission in Ukraine.

“Unfortunately the security situation on the spot and on the road to that site is unacceptable for us and we have taken the decision not to dispatch and deploy today as this would not be an appropriate environment for an unarmed civilian observer mission and for forensic and other experts to be deployed there,” he added.

There appears Western consensus that the plane was shot down from rebel-held territory by a surface-to-air missile, probably by mistake.

Yet these aren't the only threats in the region. The United States State Department released satellite images Sunday that it said back up its claims that rockets have been fired from Russia into eastern Ukraine even after the downing of the plane on July 17.

U.S. DOCUMENT

Additionally, heavy artillery for separatists allegedly crossed the border.  A four-page document released by the State Department and sources from the US Director of National Intelligence seemed to show blast marks from where rockets were launched and craters where they landed between July 21st and July 27th.

Moscow has angrily denied allegations of Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine, calling them part of a smear campaign against Russia.

Yet US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly spoke by phone Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, urging him to stop the flow of heavy weapons and rocket and artillery fire from Russia into Ukraine.

Despite these difficulties, Ukraine's army says it continues to advance on the rebel stronghold of Donetsk; at least some 20 people were killed in the area Sunday.

 








All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.