Kiev Attacks Donetsk, Headquarters for MH17 Response
Ukrainian army tanks were reported to be launching an assault to break pro-Russian rebels’ hold on the eastern city of Donetsk on Monday in the first major outbreak of hostilities in the area since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down last week.
A separatist leader said Ukrainian government forces were trying to break into Donetsk and fighting was under way near the railway station.
The provincial capital is being used as a headquarters to coordinate the cleanup, recovery, and investigation of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The attack on Donetsk by Kiev’s forces will further complicate efforts to recovery bodies, bring impartial, international investigators to the crash site, and arrive at the truth of what happened to the doomed flight.
Reuters would even admit, that even while Kiev’s forces assaulted the city of Donetsk, the first international investigators had arrived in the city:
Three members of a Dutch disaster victims identification team arrived in Donetsk and were expected to visit a railway station near the crash site where nearly 200 bodies have been stored in refrigerated wagons.
No mention was made by Reuters regarding the security conditions the Dutch team would be working under, or what measures, if any, Kiev was taking to ensure their continued incursions into eastern Ukraine did not hamper the response to MH17. An armed assault into a potential crime scene does, however, raise as many suspicions as it does legitimate questions as to why those who have benefited the most from the downed airliner are now interfering with attempts to investigate the site.
While the West mocks eastern Ukrainians for their limited resources with which to respond to the disaster, the regime in Kiev the West is backing, by launching an assault on Donetsk, currently constitutes the greatest threat to resolving the MH17 disaster.
Prolonging a Baseless Narrative
While the West condemns efforts by eastern Ukrainians to respond to the downed airliner, it should be remembered that the region has been subjected to months of artillery barrages, air raids, and incursions by armored columns backed by Neo-Nazi militants from militias such as Right Sector. Much of the infrastructure the people of Donetsk would have responded to the downed airliner with has been exhausted after months of defending the province.
One article in particular by the Daily Mail titled, “A chilling echo of Nazi death trains as MH17 victims begin the grimmest journey,” goes as far as comparing the separatists to Nazis simply for utilizing refrigerated train cars to store dead bodies while awaiting international investigators who still have not arrived on the scene.
If and when any meaningful investigation gets underway, the narrative the West has been baselessly propagating will begin to unravel, just as it did in Syria following the August 2013 Ghouta sarin gas attack. Attempts to frame Russia for the disaster without evidence continues unabated, as does the mockery of the people in Donetsk who are struggling to cope with their own limited resources and the “intentional community’s” sluggish and so far inadequate response.
With a renewed assault by Kiev and its NATO backers on the very city selected to coordinate the response to the MH17 disaster, it appears an effort is underway to delay any meaningful investigation or resolution to the disaster, thus prolonging the politically-charged climate of anger, emotions, and baseless accusations the West has been brazenly exploiting, for as long as possible.
It was the US itself that first demanded a ceasefire after the downing of MH17. In a report titled, “World leaders demand ceasefire,” it stated:
US President Barack Obama called for an immediate ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russia separatists. He also called for a credible investigation.
“The eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out,” he said at the White House.
It now appears that the very regime the US has backed since they violently seized power in Kiev in late 2013-early 2014 have both broken the ceasefire agreement and are jeopardizing the truth the US demanded “comes out.” The continued contempt for truth, due process, justice, and the rule of law exhibited by both the West and their various proxies around the world betray the image of “international norms” and “law” Washington, London, and Brussels purportedly subscribe to.