After the meeting with the Minister of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkim, during a press conference in Washington, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, told “Ukraine is ready to accept a cease-fire now but not in the future”.

He also stated that there is clear evidence of firing rockets and artillery from Russia to the Ukrainian territory.

Seventeen civilians, including three children, have been killed in the last 24 hours by artillery fire in Gorlinvka, 45 kilometers north far from Donetsk and one of the bastions of pro-Russian separatists.
The regional government stated that forty-three people have been injured in consequence of theartillery shells damaged a hospital, in particular the maternity ward, and that several houses in the city center have been affected.

The EU ambassadors reached the unanimous decision to increase sanctions against Russia, accused of destabilizing Ukraine. The decision would be soon published in the Official EU.

After the conference call between Hollande, Obama, Merkel, Cameron and Renzi, the French government announced that the 5 countries are in favor of “new measures” against Russia in relation to the Ukrainian crisis

Despite several calls addressed to Vladimir Putin, USA, Germany, France, UK and Italy deplore that Russia did not pressure the separatists to negotiate not even by taking concrete measures in order to ensure control of the territories confining with Ukraine.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay said how “the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing flight may be a war crime.” He stated that “this violation of international law could constitute a war crime. Rapid, comprehensive, effective, independent and impartial investigation about the accident is necessary.”

Since the crisis began, at least 1,129 people are dead and 3,442 wounded Ukraine. Navi Pillay also announced how alarming are the news concerning the intensification of fighting and the use of heavy weapons in Donetsk and Lugansk.

The pro-Russian separatist rebels in the east of Ukraine seem to have lost some control of the site after the Malaysia Airlines disaster and the Kiev military offensive. Vladimir Antiufev, number two of the self-Republic of Donetsk announced that “Ukrainians have taken possession of a part of the territory of the disaster.”

According to a survey recently revealed by the National Security and Defense Council of Kiev, the cause of Malaysia Airlines shooting down would be a decompression caused by a loud explosion.

The Dutch office in charge of the investigation prefers to wait in order to have a more complete idea of what happened rather than publishing disjointed information. Netherlands is the country with the greatest number of victims. The examination of the black boxes of the plane is under responsibility of the British AAIB.

Mattia SOZIO