War of words after 298 lives lost

Impartial investigation needed to help find cause, control situation, experts say;

Putin calls for direct peace talks between fighting parties in Ukraine

Akmar Binti Mohd Noor, 67, whose sister was on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, cries at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday. [Photo/Agencies]

World leaders are demanding an inquiry over the downing of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine, an effort that experts said can help calm the crisis.

The UN Security Council on Friday asked for a full, independent and international investigation amid a war of words between Kiev and Moscow over who was responsible for the death of all 298 people on board.

Yang Cheng, a researcher on Russian studies with East China Normal University, said: “The investigation period may allow the Ukraine situation to calm down in the short term.

“Each party blamed the other because they need to take the moral high ground,” Yang said.

The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed near the village of Hrabove about 40 km from the border with Russia near the regional capital of Donetsk, an area that is a stronghold of rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian government forces for several months. It was said to be shot down by a missile.

Li Qinggong, deputy secretary-general of China Institute of Geopolitics and Energy Strategy, said it is hard to say whether it was a premeditated attack. He said the possibility of an escalation in the Ukraine crisis, at least in the short term, is unlikely.

“Putin’s words after the crash showed restraint, and Moscow knows a tense situation is unfavorable,” Li said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the crash after it restarted military operations in the area, where it is trying to regain control from rebels.

He called for direct talks between warring parties in Ukraine, adding that the tragedy highlighted a need for a swift end to the Ukrainian conflict.

Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems covered the airspace where Flight MH17 was shot down, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

According to the ministry, Russian air defense monitoring on Thursday detected activity at Ukraine’s Kupol radar station, which is an integral part of the Buk-M1 system.

Rebel leader Alexander Borodai accused the Ukrainian government of downing the airliner.

Ukraine blamed the rebels for the attack.

Ukraine’s security services produced what they said were two intercepted telephone conversations that showed the rebels were responsible. In the first call, the security services said, rebel commander Igor Bezler tells a Russian military intelligence officer that rebel forces shot down a plane. In the second, two rebel fighters — one of them at the crash scene — say the rocket attack was carried out by a unit of insurgents about 25 km north of the site.

But rebels denied that the intercepted phone conversations were genuine.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to the families of the victims.

“We convey our deep condolences to the victims and our sincere sympathy to their families,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Friday.

The scale of the disaster, and its potential implications could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis, which has killed hundreds since protests in Kiev toppled president Viktor Yanukovych in February and Russia annexed the Crimea a month later.

Paul Cornish, a professor of strategic studies at the Strategy and Security Institute of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, said, “The Russia-Ukraine confrontation is of great significance for the stability of post-Cold War Europe. It called into question the judgment and the behavior not only of Russia and Ukraine but also other European governments, the European Union and NATO.

“Up until today it was a regional crisis which carried the serious danger of being copied on other European borders, such as in the Baltic states. Yet it was, curiously, a crisis which Europe and the world were becoming used to. This has changed.”

He noted that if the Malaysia Airlines aircraft was destroyed by a missile, it would bring the conflict on to the international stage.

Zhou Wa in Beijing and Cecily Liu in London contributed to this story.