Conflict between the old Cold War adversaries leveled up on Sunday as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lambasted Russia for its “complicit” involvement on the alleged gunning down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 by Ukrainian rebels on Thursday.
In a series of interviews, Kerry intrepidly blamed Russia for relentlessly providing the rebels logistical and artillery support, the Associated Press reported.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”– John Kerry” author_title=”US Secretary of State”]
Russia is supporting these separatists. Russia is arming these separatists. Russia is training these separatists, and Russia has not yet done the things necessary to try to bring them under control.
[/quote]
Just hours after the jet crashed, Ukraine released an audio recording they claimed to be a wiretapped conversation between a member of Russian intelligence and rebels who operated the complex Buk missile system, which was allegedly given to them by Russia.
In the recording a man, who is believed to be rebel leader Igor Bezler, tells a Russian intelligence officer that they shot down a plane. Some eyewitness accounts also said that after launching the missile, the weapon was returned to Russia.
“It’s pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia into the hands of separatists,” he said.
Kerry also accused the rebels for desecrating the remains of the victims as “drunken separatists piling the remains of people into trucks in an unceremonious fashion … interfering with the evidence in the location,” CNN reported.
His series of interviews with CNN’s “State of the Union,” ”Fox News Sunday,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week” is the harshest commentaries from international leaders so far since the disaster erupted last week. Britain and Australia, shared the same sentiments although not as conclusive as the United States.
