the plane with 279 people on board. four months later flight 17 was shot down over a rebel controlled region of eastern ukraine. they both blame prorussian separatists. all 289 people on board that flight died and malaysia airlines was already losing millions of dollars but the tragedies led to wider losses and mayorjor overhaul for the company. and air algerie flight crashed in northern mali. they re still investigating the cause. now let s bring in our foreign affairs correspondent and you logged thousands of miles yourself. what about this story over the weekend is making you shake your head the most about this tragedy. first of all good morning bill. i want to pick up on a couple of key aspects that you just mentioned this morning. there was no radio call and there was no emergency transponder signal.
we are continuing to follow the latest developments in malaysia air flight 17. despite a deal in place between malaysia and prorussian separatists, the two black boxes have not yet been turned over to malaysian officials. and 218 of the victims, bodies that were transported from the crash site today are on their way to meet representatives from the netherlands. investigators malaysia s representative to the united nations explained officials from his country were still not getting full access to the crash site. meanwhile, heavy fighting persists in eastern ukraine. today in donesk, the ukrainian
he spent time with this group, pro-russian ukrainians. what did you learn about these rebels? what are they capable of? are there more missiles like this under that you are bilts? good morning. it is certainly a scary bunch there. it has been believed the prorussian separatists are commanded by shadowy members of the russian forces intelligence communities to provide weapons from moscow. during our time there we found two distinct groups. the local ukrainians largely uneducated, long on bravado and given free rein to do pretty much whatever they want. those are the guys you re seeing pictures of. that s the second group. the more shadowy picture, when you come up to check points they were more hostile, better armed, had military discipline and weapons handling. some even spoke fluent english. they had the hallmarks of
intelligence forces. the ukrainian government says they are straight from moscow. that is a charge that the russians strongly deny. as we come up on 24 hours since the shootdown, the key question is who controlled that surface to air missile battery. russian special forces or prorussian separatists as we learned when we were on the ground, it is an awfully blurry line between the two. if you talk to the ukrainians who consider themselves prorussian separatists, they will tell you largely they align themselves with the russians much more than they believe in a united ukraine. that is what they wanted, that eastern part of ukraine to become part of resolution. it is the ukrainians who are now trying to take back the land that they control there from those groups. obviously it s been an awfully difficult fight. back to you guys. we re finding out now as the separatists were on their heels for awhile, the ukrainians since the
you bracing yourself for as, again, these images of these young men, their pictures, the video from their funeral is broadcast throughout the world well, prime minister netanyahu said clearly that hamas is responsible and hamas will pay. the government headed by prime minister netanyahu, the security cabinet will convene again today. they will make the decision as to the scope and the magnitude of the israeli response. but make no mistake, we know exactly what we re up against. we re up against an organization that is deadly, that is brutal. with no hesitation murdered three innocent boys, and we will take the right steps to protect ourselves. thank you very much for your time, sir. thank you. ukrainian security forces are launching assault against prorussian separatists after poroshenko halted the ten-day crease fire.