A Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17, which had 298 on board, was apparently shot down when it was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it flew over Ukraine.
According to the adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, the passenger plane was struck by a missile, which was fired from a Buk launcher. The New York Times has also reported that analysts are working on to determine the missile’s point of origin.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, U.S. President Barack Obama and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, have all responded to this tragic event and have promised a thorough investigation.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko refute involvement in the crash and said, “We do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets.”
According to The New York Times, Poroshenko said to the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, during a phone call to state his condolences, “I would like to note that we are calling this not an incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act.”
Reports by the Associated Press revealed that the area where the plane was shot down is a place where Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels have been fighting in recent days.
