Chaos continues to reign in Ukraine, where recovery efforts for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 lurch along amid political finger-pointing, the discovery of more bodies, and electrical outages in refrigerated train cars that contain more than 200 of the dead, reports the AP. Twenty-one more victims in body bags were pulled to the side of the road this morning in Hrabove, bringing the number of those found in the crash to 272 out of 298 aboard the downed jet, says Ukraine's PM. Other developments:
- The stench of decomposing bodies is building up near Torez, where bodies are being stored in refrigerated cars that lost power overnight. Power appears to have kicked back on this morning, a train engineer tells the AP.
- Ukraine's military resumed its assault on rebels 40 miles away in Donetsk, reports the Washington Post; international officials have yet to gain access to victims' bodies.
- The crash site has been forensically tainted, with the Ukrainian government telling the BBC it’s been unable to clear a path to the site and that critical evidence has been tampered with by the Russian-backed rebels.
- Angry Dutch families met with their king, queen, and PM today to voice outrage about how the bodies of the 193 Dutch on Flight MH17 have been reportedly treated, reports the AP.
- John Kerry, who yesterday blasted the investigation as "grotesque," says the US had spotted military supplies moving into Ukraine from Russia last month, according to the BBC—tanks, rocket launchers, and armored personnel carriers were seen in the convoy.
- Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has been railing against criticism of Russia not coming clean about its involvement with the crash, claiming "others are exploiting the downing of the plane for 'mercenary purposes.'" In today’s New York Times, Putin calls for a "robust" team from a UN agency to work on the investigation, claiming "everything must be done to ensure its full and absolute safety and to secure the humanitarian corridors needed for its work."
Meanwhile, the rebels yesterday claimed to have
found the plane's black boxes. (More
Malaysia Airlines MH17 stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
