Russia 'Told Rebels To Hide MH17's Black Boxes' and bring them to Russian Authorities

 

   A pro Russian worker carries a flight data recorder at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Kiev on Sunday released fresh recordings of what it says are intercepted conversations between rebels organizing to hide the flight’s black boxes from international monitors.
And the US embassy confirmed as authentic, recordings released by Kiev of an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer as they realized they had shot down a passenger jet.
The Washington Post said Ukraine’s counterintelligence chief had photographs and related evidence that three Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems moved from rebel-held territory into Russia less than 12 hours after the crash. However, top Russian officials and state media have suggested that Kiev’s new leaders staged the attack to blame the rebels.
The UN Security Council voted at on Monday on a resolution demanding that armed groups controlling the area “refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site... and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unrestricted access to the site and surrounding area for the appropriate investigating authorities.”
The leaders of France, Britain and Germany also signalled they could ramp up sanctions against Russia as early as Tuesday - barely a week after the last round of toughened embargoes.
The separatists’ violent bid to join Russia is the latest chapter in a prolonged crisis sparked by Kiev’s desire for closer ties with the EU - a sentiment many in the Russian-speaking east do not share.

'Rebels Told To Hide Black Boxes'

Ukraine's security service has released a recording it says features pro-Russian separatists talking about trying to hide the black boxes from flight MH17 at the request of Moscow. The claim was made as footage emerged of at least one of the flight data recorders - which are in fact orange - being picked up by a rescue worker on Friday.

In the audio clip which contains three separate conversations, a fighter who is identified as "O.Khodakovskyi" tells a second person named as "Andriy": "I have a request for you. It is not my request."

"Our friends from high above are very much interested in the fate of the black boxes."

"I mean people from Moscow. "Please, co-operate with the Ministry of Emergency. All that you find must not come into somebody else's hands."

"Try to take everything that you find so that it doesn't get into somebody else's hands. All those people that are coming, OSCE and so on."

Kiev claims it is proof of the "efforts of the Russian side to hide the evidence of its involvement in (a) terrorist act". The pro-Russian separatists and Moscow have both denied having any part in the disaster, which killed 298 people. But Ukraine has made repeated claims that pro-Russian rebels with Russian equipment blew the jet out of the sky before Moscow helped them cover it up by allowing the missile launcher blamed for the attack to be transported  back across the Russian border. It has also been claimed that rebels tampered with evidence and bodies at the crash site and also looted the victims baggage and belongings.

 Ukraine Pro-Russian separatists and Moscow deny having a part in the disaster The separatists have now acknowledged that they have what are presumed to be the flight recorders from the Boeing 777-200 in the eastern city of Donetsk.

"Some items, presumably the black boxes, were found, and they have been delivered to Donetsk and they are under our control," Aleksander Borodai, prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, told a news conference.

"There are no specialists among us who could pinpoint the look of the black boxes, but we brought to Donetsk some technical items which could be the black boxes of the airliner." He said they would be handed over to the International Civil Aviation Organization  ( whatever that is ) and also repeated that the rebels do not have the capability to shoot down a plane flying at 33,000ft.

Even as Putin pledged to work toward dialogue between the Ukrainian rivals, intense shelling rained down in the rebel stronghold Donetsk, just 60 kilometres from Torez where the bodies are being held.