The Russian government is blaming the downing of the Malaysian Airliner on the border of Ukraine on Ukraine itself. They said that it was the responsibility of the government of that country. This comes in the wake of claims by Russia under Vladimir Putin that the violence and unrest that has been an everyday occurrence on the eastern border can all be blamed on Ukrainian military offensives.
On Thursday, a passenger airline of theMalaysian Airlines was captured on video being downed over Ukraine. The plane has been confirmed to have been carrying 298 passengers, the majority of whom were Dutch nationals. A lot of outcries have been heard from various quarters of society condemning this act of downing the MH17 which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Preliminary investigations have indicated that the plane was shot down by a ground to air missile. They further added that it appears that the plane was a casualty of a rebellion by pro-Russian insurgents.
Responding to this act, the Russian president called on those involved in the conflict that may have caused the shooting down of this passenger plane to sit down and talk. He said that direct talks needed to be established between the opposing sides to the conflict as a matter of urgency. Distancing itself from the shooting down the plane, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, appeared on state run media to deny Russia’s involvement in the tragedy. He further called for an open, independent investigation into the saga and said his country was prepared to contribute towards this investigation. He further urged the investigators to get to the crash site quickly so that they can get hold of the aircraft’s black box, the device which contains the flight’s recorded flight information.
Meanwhile, reports on the passengers that were in the plane have shown that one of passengers in the plane was a South African national who was originally from Umhlanga Rocks. Cameron Daiziel’s family confirmed that he is one of the casualties in the plane. He is reported to be a trained helicopter pilot. The family revealed that Cameron had survived several helicopter accidents and the fact that he had died in an accident of a fixed wing aircraft seemed like a cruel joke to the family.
