• Kerry and Lavrov agree to work to stop fighting
• Final two unidentified UK victims names released
• Russia accuses US of 'geopolitical frenzy'
• Ukraine says 'compelling evidence' Russians fired missile
• Ukraine government accuses rebels of removing bodies
• Watch: Wreckage offers glimpse into victims' lives
• Final two unidentified UK victims names released
• Russia accuses US of 'geopolitical frenzy'
• Ukraine says 'compelling evidence' Russians fired missile
• Ukraine government accuses rebels of removing bodies
• Watch: Wreckage offers glimpse into victims' lives
Latest
00.25 More strong words from our Prime Minister.
Mr Cameron demanded immediate access to the crash site, with the crime scene preserved and the remains of victims treated with "proper dignity and respect".
Moscow must also stop supplying and training the rebels, he added.
If Russia did not "use this moment to find a path out of this festering, dangerous crisis" then "we must respond robustly", Mr Cameron said.
23.44 Mr Fallon added:
There is plenty of evidence that financial sanctions are already affecting the Russian economy and the ability of their bodies to trade through London.
There is plenty of evidence that financial sanctions are already affecting the Russian economy and the ability of their bodies to trade through London.
There's a range of other sanctions available, cutting off more links with Russia. He (Putin) needs to trade with the West and relies on the City of London.
Mr Fallon indicated that further assistance could be offered to Nato members in future:
I don't think we are at the start of World War Three, but Nato has to respond. It is clearly a threat to Nato's eastern flank and that's why we must offer as much reassurance as we can, particularly to the Baltic states - that is why we have had four Typhoons there since May.
23.30 There were even stronger words from Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who warned Vladimir Putin to "get out of east Ukraine" as diplomatic relations with Russia became increasingly strained. Mr Fallon, who took over at the Ministry of Defence in David Cameron's recent reshuffle, accused Russia of "sponsored terrorism" over its support for pro-Moscow separatists. He told the Mail on Sunday:
We have to make it very clear if there is any more interference like this - and it turns out he was behind it - there will be repercussions. He has to be clear the West will act.
If Russia is the principal culprit, we can take further action against them and make it clear this kind of sponsored war is completely unacceptable.
It is sponsored terrorism as far as people of east Ukraine are concerned. We don't know if somebody said, 'let's bring down a civil airliner, wherever it's from', - but we need to find out.
They need to get out of east Ukraine and leave Ukraine to the Ukrainians
22.36 David Cameron says that if it were proven Ukrainian separatists were behind the downing of the plane, Russia would be to blame for having destabilised the country, and raised the prospect of further sanctions. Writing in The Sunday Times Mr Cameron said:
We must establish the full facts of what happened. But the growing weight of evidence points to a clear conclusion: that MH17 was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile fired from a rebel-held area.
If this is the case then we must be clear what it means: this is a direct result of Russia destabilising a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them.
For too long there has been a reluctance on the part of too many European countries to face up to the implications of what is happening in eastern Ukraine.
It is time to make our power, influence and resources count. Our economies are strong and growing in strength. And yet we sometimes behave as if we need Russia more than Russia needs us.
22.37 Read a full account of today's events by The Telegraph's Robert Mendick.
22.02 More on John Kerry's phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. According to the US State Department Mr Kerry told Mr Lavrov he was "very concerned" over reports that the remains of victims and debris from the site of Thursday's crash have been removed or tampered with. The US account of the phone call differs somehwat from one provided earlier by the Russians. Here's Reuters:
Kerry told Lavrov the United States is "very concerned" over reports that the remains of victims and debris from the site of Thursday's crash have been removed or tampered with, the US State department said in a statement.
Kerry said Washington was also concerned over denial of "proper access" to the crash site in eastern Ukraine for international investigators and monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the statement said.
In an earlier account of the phone call, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry had agreed that all evidence from the downed plane, including flight recorders, should be made available for international investigation and that experts should be given access to work on the site.
"They agreed on the main - it is necessary to ensure an absolutely unbiased, independent and open international investigation of the Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine on July 17," the ministry said.
21.38 As the crisis unfolds President Barack Obama is handling events from Camp David, having foregone his usual weekend round of golf at a course on a Washington DC military base. He boarded Marine One on Friday afternoon and headed 60 miles north to the heavily guarded presidential retreat int he Catoctin mountains. It is the first time he has been to Camp David in nearly a year. Earlier in his presidency he used the base much more frequently, 32 times in all. The White House said Mr Obama would be joined at Camp David by his Kerry told Lavrov the United States is "very concerned" over reports that the remains of victims and debris from the site of Thursday's crash have been removed or tampered with, the US State department said in a statement.
Kerry said Washington was also concerned over denial of "proper access" to the crash site in eastern Ukraine for international investigators and monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the statement said.
In an earlier account of the phone call, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Kerry had agreed that all evidence from the downed plane, including flight recorders, should be made available for international investigation and that experts should be given access to work on the site.
"They agreed on the main - it is necessary to ensure an absolutely unbiased, independent and open international investigation of the Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine on July 17," the ministry said.family in what was a pre-arranged getaway. He was joined on Marine One by his National Security Council chief of staff Brian McKeon. Mr Obama will return to the White House on Sunday.
21.22 In its response to US sanctions imposed earlier this week the Russian government has announced it is banning a dozen Americans from ever entering Russia. They include the Guantanamo Bay commander Rear Admiral Richard Butler and Lynndie England, the former soldier convicted of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The others on the list were also in some way connected to either Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib. They included Gladys Kessler, a judge who rejected a hunger striking Guantanamo inmate's complaint that he was being force-fed, and Jim Moran, a Democrat congressman from Virginia.
20.53 More from Kirit Radia of ABC News near the scene. There's a tank in his rear view mirror.
20.44 In the US there have been tributes to the sole American victim on the flight, Quinn Lucas Schansman, 19, a student with joint Dutch-American citizenship, who was on his way to a holiday in Bali. His grandfather Ronald Schansman, speaking in New Jersey, told NBC News:
You go through all the phases of mourning. Of course it's anger. It didn't need to happen. A senseless thing to do. We want to know why.
20.23 ABC News Moscow correspondent Kirit Radia says:
OSCE on their visit to MH17 crash site today: "Some of the 'Donetsk People's Republic's' guards were visibly intoxicated and aggressive."
20.04 A British charity is looking after a disabled child who is thought to have lost family members in the disaster, The Press Association reports.
The Percy Hedley Foundation, based in Tyneside, is a regional education and care charity working with disabled children and adults.
A spokesman for the foundation said: "We are caring for a disabled child whose family we believe were affected by the tragedy in Ukraine and we ask that people respect the child's privacy."
The foundation did not give details such as the child's nationality or age in order to protect their identity.
19.50 Former Kremlin adviser Alexander Nekrassov, in an opinon piece for CNN, says the downing of the plane felt to some like a "Franz Ferdinand moment," referring to the eve of the First World War:
Did you have a Franz Ferdinand moment when you first heard about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashing in eastern Ukraine?
I am talking about the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination 100 years ago sparked World War I.
The reaction from some politicians and hacks suggested they were having such a moment, after the MH17 crash - hinting that the world would never be the same.
Maybe, just maybe, all the key players will now make a serious effort to try to stop the bloodshed there. And the Franz Ferdinand moment will just be a moment and nothing else.
19.26 Over two days since the plane was downed, we still don't know exactly by who, how or why.
Mark Thompson, writing in Time magazine, has been exploring some possible theories.
He says:
A pair of Russian batteries was just across the border. But it’s highly unlikely that a Russian unit went rogue.
There are plenty of military veterans in the region capable of operating the Buk system, U.S. officials believe, although the shoot down may have exposed just how little they really understood.
He explains why this could be. And his possible conclusion is:
The crew of three or four may have been unable to, or never trained in, reviewing the airliner’s transponder data declaring their target to be a civilian airliner.
19.10 Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, forensic teams are collecting material that will help positively identify the remains of victims.
Associated Press has this report:
Families and friends of the dead huddled to console one another at churches, schools and sports clubs across the nation.
Altius, a small soccer club on the edge of the central city of Hilversum, was typical of scenes that played out across the Netherlands.
A couple of dozen members held a small ceremony at Altius' clubhouse to remember a family of four killed in the crash, as the team's flag fluttered at half-staff in the warm afternoon breeze.
Charles Smallenburg was a long-time volunteer at the club, his young son Werther a promising striker in the D1 youth team, club chairman Tom Verdam told The Associated Press after the brief get-together. Charles' wife Therese and daughter Carlijn also died, the club said.
As Hilversum's mayor walked away and families unlocked their bicycles behind him and cycled homeward, Verdam said the commemoration was simple, but emotional.
"We had a moment that we could each share emotions and talk about it," he said. "It's a small club, so everyone knows everyone"
The same could almost be said for this nation of 17 million people.
18.46 International monitors are now saying they have been allowed to visit more of the crash site - though gunmen still stopped them approaching some of the wreckage.
In sometimes tense scenes with pro-Russian rebels clearly uncomfortable at having observers and the press present, a top official at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said access had improved since they arrived on Friday.
Securing the site and preserving evidence is crucial for investigators to try to piece together what, and who, caused the airliner to plunge into the steppe, but some officials suggest the scene has been compromised just two days on.
Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine said:
We have now had the possibility to see a bit more of this rather large scene. We have observed the situation here as it was presented to us.
We also had the possibility to speak to those who are in charge here, and to speak to inhabitants of a local village.
He told reporters:
As in any job, the cooperation improves over time. We had better access today.
Alexander Hug, (2R) Deputy Chief Monitor of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and members of his team wait to visit the site of the crash of Malaysian airliner MH17
18.32 Our reporter Tom Brooks-Pollock has been speaking to the family of Glenn Thomas - one of the British victims.
Mr Thomas, seen below, worked for the World Health Organisation.
He writes:
The twin sister of the World Health Organisation worker who died in the Ukraine plane crash has revealed that he was wearing their late mother's gold wedding ring when the aircraft went down.
Tracey Withers, 49, sister of Glenn Thomas, spoke of her sadness at the idea that rebels could have looted the ring from the crash site.
The ring was given by her late mother, June Thomas, to Glenn before Mrs Thomas died from cancer at the age of 53 in 1987. Glenn had worn the family heirloom on his finger ever since.
Amid reports that pro-Russian rebels are removing the bodies of the dead, Mrs Withers said: "It does make me feel sad. It's a family heirloom that means so much to the family and it would mean so much to get it back."
Asked about the possibility that the gold ring, which Glenn wore on his little finger, had been looted, saying: "I try not to think about that."
18.20 Rutte's comments were in response to early reports today of bodies being mishandled.
But these latest photos appear to show official, trained teams at work.
- but then again, look at the two characters standing behind the men in official civilian uniforms...
18.13 This is the quote from Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister.
He is talking about reports that some of the bodies were being removed unlawfully from the site, or being looted.
It means: "Shocked by images of totally disrespectful behavior, downright disgusting. Absolutely urgent now is the rapid repatriation of victims."
18.01 The New York Times has just published on its website an amazing read about the diplomactic wrangling before, during and after the crash.
From the start, the telephone call did not go well. Dispensing with pleasantries, President Vladimir V. Putin launched into an edgy and long-winded complaint about the new American sanctions imposed on Russia the day before.
From the start, the telephone call did not go well. Dispensing with pleasantries, President Vladimir V. Putin launched into an edgy and long-winded complaint about the new American sanctions imposed on Russia the day before.
President Obama, on the phone from the Oval Office on Thursday morning, responded that Russia was arming rebels in Ukraine — citing among other things the antiaircraft weapons that the United States believed they had been sent. “This is not something we’re making up,” Mr. Obama said, according to an American official.
Then more than halfway through the tense, hourlong call, Mr. Putin noted, almost in passing, that he had received a report of an aircraft going down in Ukraine.
Mr. Putin was vague about the details and the conversation moved on.
But in that instant, the months-long proxy war between East and West took a devastating turn, one that would shift the ground geopolitically amid the charred wreckage and broken bodies in a Ukrainian wheat field.
You can read the full version here.
17.50 The family of football fan John Alder, who was killed in the MH17 crash, have thanked well-wishers for their kindness in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The 63-year-old from Gateshead was travelling with Liam Sweeney, 28, to watch Newcastle United play in New Zealand.
The family, who live in the County Durham area, have been helped by family liaison officers from Durham Police.
In a statement issued by the force, they said:
We would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and wishes and incredibly generous gestures, particularly those who have been able to share personal memories of John.
We are struggling to comprehend what has happened but we are touched and moved by your kind words, acts and the knowledge that so many people saw John for who he was: a kind, courteous man who was much loved as a son, brother, uncle and fan.
Newcastle United was his life and we are proud of his dedication to the team.
Our thoughts are with Liam's family and the families of the other passengers at this terrible time.
Liam Sweeney, 28, travelling to watch Newcastle United on tour, left; John Alder, 60, had missed only one Newcastle United match since 1973
17.45
17.33 More on the Dutch-Russian leaders' conversation:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has one last chance to show he is serious about helping rescuers recover the bodies of the victims of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the Dutch prime minister said on Saturday.
Minutes after what he described as a "very intense" conversation with the Russian leader, Mark Rutte said:
He has one last chance to show he means to help.
He added that the leaders of Germany, Britain and Australia shared his view.
And referring to allegations that bodies of the passengers, including 193 of his countrymen, were being dragged about and allowed to rot at the scene, he said:
I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot.
17.30 Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has had a "very intense" conversation with Putin this afternoon.
17.24 REUTERS - UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SAYS THOSE CONNECTED TO DOWNING OF MALAYSIAN AIRLINER SHOULD NOT TAKE PART IN TALKS ON CONFLICT IN EASTERN UKRAINE - PRESIDENTIAL WEBSITE
17.19 Is this the photo of the missile being shot into the sky?
Our Moscow correspondent, Tom Parfitt, has spotted this photograph just posted on the Ukrainian security service website.
The website claims:
A photo was released taken at the moment of a missile launch near Torez towards the village of Snizhne.
It distinctly depicts contrail of the missile that shot down the Boeing 777 with civilians aboard. Vitalii Naida [Ukraine's head of security] emphasized that the Service had identified a launch point in the district controlled by terrorists and Russian military.
17.00 More from Garry Kasparov's piece on Putin and Ukraine. Bear in mind that he is unashamedly and vehemently anti-Putin.
But blaming Putin for invading Ukraine — for annexing Crimea, for giving advanced surface-to-air missiles to separatists — is like blaming the proverbial scorpion for stinging the frog. It is expected. It is his nature.
Instead of worrying about how to change the scorpion’s nature or, even worse, how best to appease it, we must focus on how the civilized world can contain the dangerous creature before more innocents die.
16.50 Emerging now that David Cameron has spoken this afternoon to Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister.
Britain and the Netherlands agreed that the European Union will have to re-evaluate its approach to Russia due to evidence that Ukrainian separatists downed a Malaysian aircraft.
Cameron and his Dutch counterpart discussed the matter over the phone on Saturday afternoon, the office of the British Prime Minister said in a statement.
The PM and PM Rutte agreed that the EU will need to reconsider its approach to Russia in light of evidence that pro-Russian separatists brought down the plane.
Earlier, Britain's Foreign Secretary said Russia must use its influence over Ukrainian separatists to improve access to the site of the downed Malaysian aircraft, and that it had called in the country's ambassador over the disaster.
16.44 We're getting more details of the Kerry-Lavrov conversation.
(Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on Saturday that both countries will use their influence on the two sides of the Ukraine conflict to end hostilities, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The parties also agreed that all evidence from the downed Malaysian airplane, including flight recorders, should be made available for international investigation and that experts should be given access to work on the site.
"It was stressed that the conflict in Ukraine has no military solution and can only be resolved peacefully through the elaboration of a national consensus," the ministry said of the telephone call between Kerry and Lavrov.
16.40 Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations - a US-based think tank - has the following observation:
16.31 Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has since become a Russian presidential candidate and outspoken Putin critic, has warned about the dangers of inaction over the crash.
And he is uncompromising in his attack on Putin here, too.
Writing in Time magazine, he says:
Based on the day’s official statements and most news coverage the word “blame” is somehow forbidden and I do not understand why. Establishing responsibility and exacting accountability for these murders is more important than fretting about reaching the right tone of restraint in a press release.
Blaming Putin for these deaths is as correct and as pointless as blaming the man who pressed the button that launched the missile. Everyone has known for months that Russia arms and supports the separatists in Ukraine. Everyone has known for years that a mouse does not squeak in the Kremlin without first getting Putin’s permission. We also know very well what Putin is, a revanchist KGB thug trying to build a poor man’s USSR to replace the loss of the original he mourns so much.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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