国际英语新闻:Malaysian Airliner Crashes in Eastern Ukraine

A Malaysia Airlines jetliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed Thursday in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, and Ukrainian government officials said pro-Russian insurgents had shot down the plane.

A senior U.S. official said a surface-to-air missile downed the Boeing 777-200  but analysts don't yet know where the missile was launched from nor who fired it

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that Flight MH17 lost contact with Ukrainian air-traffic control at around 2:15 p.m. UTC. Many of the passengers were Dutch citizens.

The jet went down in a rural part of the Donetsk region, not far from the Russian border, where the Russian-backed fighters have battled Ukraine governement troops in what increasingly resembles all-out war.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, citing military officials, said the airliner was flying at around 33,000 feet when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile known as a Buk.

The Buk is a sophisticated, medium-range, Soviet-era surface-to-air system that can fire missiles up to 72,000 feet in altitude.

"The plane was shot down, because the Russian air defense systems was [sic] affording protection to Russian mercenaries and terrorists in this area," ministry spokeswoman Natalya Melnychuk said in a statement on Facebook.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he didn't rule out that the airliner was shot down.

"We do not rule out that this plane has been shot down but emphasize that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were not engaged in any activity involving hitting targets in the air," he said in a statement posted on the presidential website.

In a statement posted later on Twitter, Poroshenko wrote: "This is not an incident, not an accident, but an act of terror."

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says a Malaysian passenger jet was "blown out of the sky" over eastern Ukraine Thursday, and did not crash by accident.

VOA's Pentagon correspondent, Jeff Seldin, says U.S. officials confirm the plane was hit by a missile - but that it is not clear who fired the missile or whether it came from Russian or Ukrainian territory.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that U.S. officials have been in touch with Ukrainian officials, but declined to elaborate. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, called the crash a terrible tragedy.

“Right now we’re working to determine whether there were any American citizens on board.  That is our first priority and I’ve directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian government .  The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why," President Obama said during a speech in Delaware. And as a country our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers wherever they call home.”

Before leaving on his trip, Obama spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A day earlier, the United States announced new economic sanctions targeting major Russian oil and financiali companies, the latest in a series of moves aimed at punishing Russia for its role in Ukraine.

According to the White House, the call had been requested by Moscow. As the two spoke, the first reports of the crash emerged, and Putin brought them up with Obama at the end of the conversation, Earnest said.

Obama also telephoned Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte to offer condolences. White House officials say the two leaders talked about the need to ensure that international investigators have unimpeded and immediate access to the crash site.

In televised comments in Moscow late Thursday, Putin said the Ukrainian government bore responsibility.

"This tragedy would not have happened, if there had been peace on that land, or in any case if military operations in southeastern Ukraine had not been renewed," he said. "And without doubt the government of the territory on which
it happened bears responsibility for this frightening tragedy."

The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency session Friday morning to discuss the crash. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a "full and transparent international investigation."

Crash location

News reports said the plane crashed near the eastern town of Snizhne, near the border with Russia, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks. An airstrike there earlier this week killed 11 people. There was no claim of responsibility for that attack, though the rebels blamed Ukraine's air force.

On Thursday, around the time of the reported crash, separatists claimed they had downed an Antonov An-26 miltary transport plane near the town of Torez, which is less then six miles from Snizhne.

Social media postings on Twitter and the Russian site VKontakte that were attributed to Igor Strelkov, a Russian citizen who is a top insurgent leader, claimed that insurgents had shot down the An-26 at around the same time that the Malaysian airliner went down.