REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev
Armed pro-Russian separatists stand at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.
This morning, 295 people died when a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, 25 miles from the Russian border. U.S. intelligence have confirmed that a surface-to-air missile was fired at the flight.
The SBU leaked a conversation between militants nicknamed "Major" and "Greek" as the separatists inspected the crash site. According to a transcript translated by the Kyiv Post, the rebels discuss realizing that it is a civilian aircraft and seeing dead civilians.
"It's 100 percent a passenger aircraft," Major is recorded as saying noting that he saw no weapons on site. "Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medicinal stuff, towels, toilet paper."
About 20 minutes after the plane crash, the SBU says that suspected Russian intelligence officer and leading commander of the self-proclaim "Donetsk People's Republic" Igor Bezler placed a call to Russia's main intelligence department.
An adviser to the Ukraine Interior Minister said pro-Russia separatists shot down the passenger plane with a Russian-made BUK ground-to-air missile system. And residents in the area - a stronghold of pro-Russian rebels who are fighting the Ukrainian army - said one of those systems was nearby.
