Graveyard of desecration: Grave robbers. Ghoulish tourists taking pictures on their mobiles....

dailymail.co.uk ^ | July 19, 2014 | IAN BIRRELL

[Tailgunner Joe]

Several human victims were still stuck in their seats. Others were mangled, mashed and hideously manipulated. I saw a leg, a battered trunk, a twisted hand reaching out from the grass and things more gruesome than I ever want to recall.

In a burned patch of grass littered with charred debris lay five crumpled corpses in a heap.

Nearby were boarding passes, a smashed computer, a school book, piles of clothes, a box of chocolates – although bizarrely, two bottles of duty-free whisky had survived.

One can only imagine the terror with which these 298 passengers plummeted to earth – should they have been unfortunate enough to have still been alive – after their passenger plane was seemingly struck by a powerful military weapon.

There are many circles of obscenity around this mass murder, almost certainly caused by a missile fired by crowing pro-Russian rebels armed, funded and trained by Moscow. But perhaps the ultimate insult is that even in death these poor people were denied dignity.

So their devastated and dishevelled bodies were left in the baking summer heat, exposed to the elements for three days while uniformed goons with guns stole from their suitcases and then stopped international observers trying to solve the mystery of their deaths.

Meanwhile, the pro-Russian rebels who most likely caused this terrible carnage treated an international crime scene with as much respect as a tourist site, allowing motley groups of paramilitaries and the growing media army to trample around some of the aircraft debris.

Perhaps the most sickening sight was a young male passenger whose body had been retrieved from a corn field and placed in a black body bag. But no one bothered to close it, so he lay there naked next to the road, his underpants around his legs.

[silverleaf]

that's a copout
the territory is controlled by Russian clients
the launchers that downed the airliner sneaked back into Russia-there are videos
Are you suggesting Putin is powerless to intervene?
Spetznaz forces could get involved and improve the manners of those clients and allow international recovery and humanitarian teams to do their job

[The Duke]

I tend to agree with you. In man parts of the world life is simply cheap.

[Impy]

He has no business sending forces into Ukrainian territory.

He’s @$$h0le for arming these terrorist scum in first place.

[meatloaf]

I’m not sure how you’re defining cop out. There are rumors the Spetsnaz are part of the problem in Ukraine. Putin is riding high in the Russian popularity polls because he controls the media meaning what information gets to the Russian public.

I am familiar with one family with members in Russia and Ukraine that have been deeply divided by the differing opinions. The ones living in Moscow believe the Russian media while the ones in Ukraine see something completely different. They’ve stopped speaking to each other.

Putin is not going to do anything to back track now. Putin is not powerless. He is disinclined to do anything that directly harms his mercenaries in Ukraine. He may abandon them which may have already happened. He can do that without undercutting his support in Russia since he’s always claimed, in Russia, the mercenaries he recruited and equipped are Ukrainian separatists.