News from Ukraine Conflict

[Centurion40]

There has been massive looting of the bodies.
I spoke to a guy who tried to see if his fallen loved one's phone would still be working and guess what; someone actually picked up and started muttering in Russian.
There are also various videos to be found where you see seperatists and civilian looking people removing jewelry from the bodies.

I'd like to say that I am surprised, but I am not.

Click on endfire's link.  There is a pic of a poster of Obama, supposedly displayed in Russia.  It shows Obama being offered a banana, like a monkey.

[BanzaiCat]

Just announced...the Ukrainian PM is resigning.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukrainian-prime-minister-announces-resignation-24694977

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has announced his resignation following turmoil in government.

Yatsenyuk made the announcement from the dais of the parliament after two parties said they would pull out of the governing coalition. "I am announcing my resignation in connect with the collapse of the coalition," Yatsenyuk said.

He said the parliament could no longer do its work and pass necessary laws.

The nationalist Svoboda party and the UDAR movement led by former boxer Vladimir Klitscho pulled out of the group of legislators that took over after former President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted by protesters seeking closer ties with the European Union.

[endfire79]

There has been massive looting of the bodies.
I spoke to a guy who tried to see if his fallen loved one's phone would still be working and guess what; someone actually picked up and started muttering in Russian.
There are also various videos to be found where you see seperatists and civilian looking people removing jewelry from the bodies.

I'd like to say that I am surprised, but I am not.

Click on endfire's link.  There is a pic of a poster of Obama, supposedly displayed in Russia.  It shows Obama being offered a banana, like a monkey.

The map idea is pretty neat - it's being updated on the fly by people as we speak with points of interest and local observations from all over that region.  Intelligence and social networking is here alright. 

[GDS_Starfury]

Has anyone else noticed how easy it seems to shoot down Frogfoots?.

[Staggerwing]

Has anyone else noticed how easy it seems to shoot down Frogfoots?.

Wouldnt that be 'Frogfeet'?  ^-^

Apparently they are not as well armored as was thought.

[Airborne Rifles]

Yeah, I saw an article stating that the rebels claimed one shoulder-launched missile took out both birds the other day.

[BanzaiCat]

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-russia-jet-shot-down-blame/25460575.html

Russian outrage: seems legit. 

[Centurion40]

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-russia-jet-shot-down-blame/25460575.html

Russian outrage: seems legit. 

Oy vey.

[panzerde]

I think this sums up Russian history:

[Yskonyn]

Yskonyn,
Were you able to get in touch with your friends?

Yes, they've lost dear ones (as expected, really). There were two colleagues of my wife on board, but they were not 'direct colleagues' so to speak. One of them was a very highly regarded HIV/AIDS researcher. Aparently loosing him is a big big blow for the AIDS medical scene worldwide.

Colleagues of mine have perished too. Our airline's ICT and Flight Technical Department has been hit with losses.
Not people I personally know, but among them are a few close relatives to people I do know personally.

It's a very difficult time for them.
The ceremony being held each time two new aircraft land at Eindhoven AFB with approx 74 caskets per run is respectful and well done.
Then 40 black cars escorted by military police move the caskets from the AFB to Hilversum where the bodies are going to be examined and identified. Each time a new convoy leaves, the roads and highway towards Hilversum are just crowded with people paying their respect. Along the roads cranes have been erected with flags raised half.
It's truely intimidating (in a respectful manner). The disaster has hit hard here.

At the same time people are starting to get a little restless about the future of the whole thing; should we sharpen our tone? why aren't we sending in armed forces to secure the site? why is our prime minister still only asking for patience and re-iterating that our first goal has been met (getting the bodies recovered) and the second goal is to ensure the investigation on the crash site can be done properly and securely. He refrains from saying anything harsh at this time because he feels it might endanger the short term goals.
But the whole thing just feels so sluggish. There has not been a big fist from the get go and secure the site properly and keep it that way (Ukraine is to blame here too, I feel). Evidence lies there, unprotected. Has been tampered with, has been looted, etc.

Note that this is just the view from a civvie. I am sure there are all kinds of things going on we have absolutely no clue about, but it sure doesn't really look like it's something with teeth.

[Staggerwing]

I'm truly sorry to hear that. My prayers go out to the families of colleagues of your wife and yourself.

Being Dutch born myself I am also very frustrated by the pace at which things are happening. there needs to be a hard response to the incident itself and also th the criminal lack of respect for the crash scene and especially the victims' remains by those thuggish organizations who squatted on the scene. This international feet-dragging sets a very dangerous precedent with respect to the safety of air travel all over the world. If other quasi-political groups (such as ISIS and the like) think they can shoot down an airliner and rely on the international community to muck around instead of bringing down the hammer then you will see more of this over airspace adjacent to other conflict zones such as southern Turkey and parts of the Eastern Med. I'm sure Putin will be more than happy to smuggle out older SAMs to those willing to pay in hard cash as long as he can keep even a pretense of deniability. He doesn't give two s**ts about what the rest of the world thinks of him, just what it does about him.

[JasonPratt]

I'm truly sorry to hear that. My prayers go out to the families of colleagues of your wife and yourself.

Ditto.

This international feet-dragging sets a very dangerous precedent with respect to the safety of air travel all over the world. If other quasi-political groups (such as ISIS and the like) think they can shoot down an airliner and rely on the international community to muck around instead of bringing down the hammer then you will see more of this over airspace adjacent to other conflict zones such as southern Turkey and parts of the Eastern Med.

Which kind of brings us back to the Mali/Algerian incident earlier this week -- is there any news yet on what happened over there?

[Yskonyn]

My money is firmly bet on a bad weather incident.

[GDS_Starfury]

I have no desire to travel by air anywhere.  from start to finish its just become an inconvenient mess.

[JasonPratt]

^^ I'd say "and so the terrorists win", but I'm not sure making Sataners disgruntled about traveling by air was all that near the top of their goal list.


{pondering} "And so the terrorists win an amusing trollish side-benefit"?