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Putin Calls for Talks in Ukraine and a ‘Robust’ Crash Investigation
Pressure Grows on Putin as Forensics Experts Reach Ukraine Crash Site
(about 2 hours later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin issued a brief statement early on Monday saying that Russia would work to ensure that the conflict in eastern Ukraine moves from the battlefield to the negotiating table, and he again said that a robust international investigating team must have secure access to the Malaysia Airlines crash site. He also accused unspecified nations of exploiting the disaster in pursuit of “mercenary political goals.”
KIEV, Ukraine — A pair of Dutch forensics experts finally gained access on Monday to the remains of the victims from the downed Malaysia Airlines jet in eastern Ukraine after days of standoffs over access to the site and growing pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to clear the way for a full international investigation.
The statement posted on the Kremlin website came a day after mounting international criticism and anger against Russia and specifically Mr. Putin for the chaotic, unsecured condition of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site and what some nations said was the desecration of the victims’ bodies. President Obama and other leaders have accused Mr. Putin of arming and abetting the rebels in their insurgent battle against the Ukrainian government.
European leaders threatened new sanctions on Russia as soon as Tuesday, suggesting they were increasingly open to the harder line being taken against Moscow by the United States, which has accused Russia of providing the surface-to-air missile system that brought down the jetliner, training rebels in how to use it, and perhaps even supplying experts who helped to fire it.
“Russia will do everything it can to shift the conflict in eastern Ukraine from today’s military stage to the stage of discussion at the negotiating table,” Mr. Putin said in the video statement posted at 1:40 a.m. on Monday, suggesting it emerged from a late-night discussion.
Mr. Putin issued a brief statement early on Monday saying that Russia would work to ensure that the conflict in eastern Ukraine moved from the battlefield to the negotiating table. He said that a robust international investigating team must have secure access to the crash site, but also accused unspecified nations of exploiting the disaster in pursuit of “mercenary political goals.”
In eastern Ukraine, clashes continued between rebels and government forces as the recovery effort remained hampered by a lack of access to the crash site. Near the train station in Donetsk, about 50 miles from the crash site, artillery fire was heard. A witness said that rebel tanks were in the area, and that Ukrainian forces were firing back. It was unclear exactly where they were firing from. Ukrainian forces have occupied the nearby airport for weeks.
The slow pace at which the bodies have been recovered and the destruction or removal of potential evidence of what happened has generated growing anger at the separatist rebels and at Mr. Putin.
Rebel fighters said they believed Ukrainian forces were attempting to enter the city, perhaps to create a corridor for their forces, which were marooned at the Donetsk airport. “They’re trying to come in,” said a rebel fighter, who would identify himself only by his first name, Sasha, before he headed into battle.
Even as the pair of Dutch forensic experts arrived on Monday in the town of Torez in eastern Ukraine, where the bodies of the victims have been collected in refrigerated rail cars, the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, said that pro-Russian rebels who control the area were preventing the train from leaving.
A spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic, Sergei Vladimirovich, said that the Ukrainians had begun to push into the city from the northwest. “A fight is going on,” he said by telephone. “There are casualties but we don’t know how many. We are still trying to figure out what is happening.”
The body identification experts, wearing shirts bearing the insignia of the forensics unit of the Dutch national police, donned blue latex gloves and put masks over their mouths and noses, and one asked for a flashlight, as they made an initial inspection of bodies that lay in black trash bags piled toward the back of one wagon. They repeated the process in two other train cars.
A Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, said he could not give details about what was happening, citing military secrecy, and would say only that the military was entering “an active phase of the antiterrorist operation.” He insisted that the military would not bomb or shoot artillery in the city, but he did not explain how specifically the Ukrainians were pushing forward. He said a “special unit,” was taking action to “reinforce the city.” Witnesses reported heavy shelling in the area and damage at a children’s hospital.
The Dutch experts were accompanied by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been conducting an international monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine and quickly sent observers at the plane wreckage site, where they said their efforts were limited by rebels until Sunday, when they were granted broader access.
Also on Monday, the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, said at a news conference in Kiev that the Ukrainian authorities had discovered 272 bodies from the flight, which left Amsterdam bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 251 of which had been loaded onto refrigerated train cars that had been sent to the crash site. He said the separatists were refusing to allow the train to leave the area, and that the Ukrainian government was ready to transfer an international investigation to “our Dutch friends.”
As the experts began their work, heavy fighting, including mortar shelling, was underway between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian military, in the nearby regional capital of Donetsk, a rebel stronghold about 50 miles form the crash site. A spokesman for the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Sergei Vladimirovich, said that the government forces had begun pushing into the city from the northwest, near a market by the main train station, and a witness reported seeing heavy shelling in the area including damage at a children’s hospital.
Mr. Yatsenyuk, who had been speaking in Ukrainian, then switched to English and adopted an even more forceful tone in condemning Russia.
“A fight is going on,” he said by telephone. “There are casualties but we don’t know how many. We are still trying to figure out what is happening.” A Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, would not provide give details, citing military secrecy, but confirmed the fighting, calling it “an active phase of the antiterrorist operation.”
“Those who committed this international crime, those responsible will be held accountable and together with the entire international community,” he said, “we will bring to justice everyone responsible, including the country which is behind the scene, but supplied illegal weapons, provided the financial support, trained these bastards and supported and even orchestrated this kind of despicable crime. "
Caught between the twin challenges of pressuring Mr. Putin over his backing for the insurgents and securing the Russian president’s support in gaining access to the crash site, European leaders on Monday maneuvered to overcome longstanding divisions about imposing significantly tighter sanctions on Moscow.
Mr. Putin again endorsed an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, whose country bore the brunt of the casualties, told Parliament that “all political, economic and financial options” were available as the European Union prepared to debate measures further isolating the Russian leader.
“It is essential for a robust team of experts to work on the site of the catastrophe under the auspices of I.C.A.O., the relevant international commission,” Mr. Putin said. “Everything must be done to ensure its full and absolute safety and to secure the humanitarian corridors needed for its work.”
“It is clear that Russia must use her influence on the separatists to improve the situation on the ground,” Mr. Rutte said, according to Reuters. “If in the coming days access to the disaster area remains inadequate, then all political, economic and financial options are on the table against those who are directly or indirectly responsible for that,” he said.
It is unclear whether such an indirect call to allow the investigation to proceed would satisfy the growing chorus of critics who have demanded that Mr. Putin intervene directly with the pro-Russian separatists to end the combination of disorder and threats that have marked the crash site thus far. He also did not directly address the repeated accusations that Russia played a role in the disaster.
His words found an echo from George Osborne, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, who said Britain was prepared to tighten sanctions even if that meant losing Russian business in London’s economically vital financial services industry. “Any sanctions will have an economic impact, and we are prepared to undertake further sanctions,” he said in a BBC radio interview.
The United States and Ukraine have both accused Russia of not just supplying the rebels with weapons, but actively training them in the use of antiaircraft missiles, and they accuse the separatists of spiriting the battery used to down the civilian jetliner over the border into Russia just hours after the disaster.
His remarks followed a telephone conversation over the weekend between the leaders of Britain. France and Germany who were reported to have agreed that their countries should be ready to use a meeting of the 28-nation European Union’s foreign ministers on Tuesday to introduce tougher sanctions.
Australia dispatched its foreign minister to the United Nations to lead the effort on Monday to get the United Nations Security Council to approve a resolution demanding that pro-Russian separatists grant unrestricted access to the crash site.
But some European governments are cautious about supporting sanctions that would provoke reprisals from Russia — a key source of energy supplies to many European nations.
In addition, European leaders meeting on Tuesday are expected to discuss tougher economic sanctions against Russia, based on the sense that Moscow, while publicly supporting an investigation, is secretly trying to thwart it.
Mr. Yatsenyuk said that the emergency services and hundreds of volunteers had gathered 272 bodies from fields near the village of Grabovo. He added, however, that the area, including the rail station, remained under the control of rebels and that the train carrying the bodies was not being allowed to leave.
From the start, Mr. Putin has blamed Ukraine for the crash and said it was its responsibility to carry out the investigation. Russia’s state-run television has also maintained a steady drumbeat of reports suggesting Ukraine had the means to shoot down the passenger jet, while stopping just short of accusing it of doing so.
“These bloody guerrillas do not allow the train to leave the area,” he said at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
In his statement released early Monday, Mr. Putin again said that if Ukraine had not abandoned a cease-fire in southeastern Ukraine, the tragedy would not have happened, and he accused others of trying to exploit it for political gains.
Mr. Putin’s statement did not directly address the allegations that Russia supplied the weapon system and expertise needed to shoot down the plane.
“At the same time no one should, and no one has a right to, use this tragedy for mercenary political goals,” he said in the statement, recorded at one of his residences near Moscow. “Such an event should not divide but unite people.”
In Kiev, Mr. Yatsenyuk condemned Russia and the rebels in harsh terms and said Ukraine wanted an international investigation to hold the separatists and their patrons accountable.
There was no indication that the Kremlin would abandon what Ukraine and Western governments have said is its extensive support for the separatists, and analysts here suggested that Mr. Putin would not unless there was irrefutable evidence that they shot down the plane. Mr. Putin is riding a wave of popular support at home for his robust foreign policy, starting with the annexation of Crimea in March.
“Those who committed this international crime, those responsible will be held accountable,” Mr. Yatsenyuk, wearing a black suit and black tie, said, his faced hardened in a stony glare at the Kiev news conference.
Politicians around the world expressed anger on Sunday at the lack of action by Mr. Putin. The American secretary of state, John Kerry, said he was warning Mr. Putin “for the last time” to stabilize eastern Ukraine and halt the flow of weapons to separatists there. He called their handling of the victims, which the rebels seized from Ukrainian rescue workers, “grotesque.”
“Together with the entire international community, we will bring to justice everyone responsible,” he said, speaking in English, “including the country which is behind the scene, but supplied the illegal weapon, provided the financial support, trained these bastards and supported and even orchestrated this kind of despicable crime.”
The United States, along with Ukraine, has been the most vocal in accusing Russia of supplying the separatists with the surface-to-air missile believed to have brought down the Malaysia Airlines flight last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.
Mr. Yatsenyuk demanded that Russia and its president address the allegations. “I urge the Russian government to respond to all questions that have been raised,” he said, adding later, “President Putin needs to understand, enough is enough”
In Australia on Monday, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, said attempts to secure the crash sight remained “an absolutely shambolic situation.”
Mr. Yatsenyuk said Ukraine was prepared to turn over control of the investigation to the Netherlands. Mr. Yatsenyuk cited a litany of evidence pointing to Russia’s complicity including photos of SA-11 missile systems in rebel territory, and communications between rebels and Russian security officials intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence.
“It does look more like a garden cleanup than a forensic investigation,” he said.
Those remarks came after he said earlier that he had talked to Mr. Putin by telephone and that the Russian leader had “said all the right things” about making sure that the international investigation was able to proceed.
Speaking on Sunday on television in Australia, Mr. Abbott summed up what much of the Western world was thinking: “Russian-controlled territory, Russian-backed rebels, quite likely a Russian-supplied weapon, Russia cannot wash its hands of this.”
Forensic experts from the United States and other countries whose citizens died aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet arrived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early Monday as part of an international push to recover, identify and repatriate bodies still under the control of pro-Russian rebels.
“We are here to get the bodies back to their countries and to their families. We will try our utmost to do this as quickly as possible,” Michel Oz, the group’s Dutch coordinator, said. But he added that it was still unclear whether the separatist rebels who control the crash site and the nearby railway station at Torez would allow a train loaded with corpses to leave for Kharkiv. “We have no information,” he said.
At 11:30 a.m., Dutch body identification specialists arrived together with representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at the train station in Torez. The two body identification experts bowed their heads for a few seconds of silence before climbing into the second car and starting to work. They put on blue latex gloves and masks over their mouths and noses. One asked for a flashlight. The bodies lay in black trash bags in a pile toward the back of the wagon. Incongruously, a large tree branch lay next to them. One worker, in rimless glasses with a round face, stood up inside and paused, and looked around him, appearing overwhelmed. They bent down touching some of the bags. They repeated the process in two other train cars.
“We need to get this train out of here before darkness,” Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the O.S.C.E. special monitoring mission, said to a separatist leader, standing in front of a rusty train wagon. He added: “If we wait any longer it won’t be good for anyone.”
Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine’s biggest city, lies around 190 miles north of the crash site and is under the control of the central government in Kiev, which has repeatedly accused the pro-Russian rebels of firing the missile that downed the plane. The Ukrainian authorities have set up a forensic laboratory and other facilities in Kharkiv to identify remains and investigate the crash.
Mr. Oz said the international team now assembling in Kharkiv included experts from the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, a unit of the German federal police that handles the identification of disaster victims, as well as officials from Britain and Australia. Malaysia is also due to join the effort.
An Australian official who declined to be identified voiced dismay that the bodies were effectively being held hostage by separatist rebels. “We have no idea what is going on and when we can get the bodies,” he said.
Igor Baluta, the governor of Kharkiv, complained that the separatists were frustrating efforts to identify corpses and return them to their families. “We are all ready here. We are prepared to receive the bodies but everything depends on getting an agreement” with the rebels, Mr. Baluta told reporters on Monday.
