49 dead after pro russian rebels down plane

49 dead after Pro-Russian rebels
down Ukrainian plane; Moscow
equipment eyed
KIEV, Ukraine – Pro-Russia separatists shot
down a Ukrainian military transport plane
Saturday, killing all 49 crew and troops aboard
in a bloody escalation of the conflict in the
country's restive east.
It was a bitter setback for the Ukrainian forces,
which have struggled to suppress an armed
insurgency by foes of the new government. And
it came only a week after Ukraine's new
president, billionaire candy magnate Petro
Poroshenko, spoke about a peace plan in his
inaugural address.
Yet the deadliest single incident in the four-
month-old conflict suggested the two sides were
still far apart in their demands and talk of de-
escalating the conflict remained premature.
The loss of the plane "will refocus attention on
the fact that Russia does not seem to be doing
very much to moderate the insurgency (or) the
cross-border resupply of separatists," said
Timothy Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank PLC.
The United States, meanwhile, rejected Russia's
statements that it was not arming the
separatists, saying Russia clearly had sent
tanks and rocket launchers to the rebels,
making sure the unmarked tanks were of a type
not currently being used by Russian forces.
Nine crew and 40 troops were aboard the Il-76
when it went down early Saturday as it
approached the airport at Luhansk, the
Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said. The
Russian-built Il-76 is a four-engine jet used to
transport heavy gear and people.
Luhansk is in eastern Ukraine near the border
with Russia, an area where separatists have
seized government buildings and declared
independence after holding disputed
referendums. Ukrainian forces still control the
Luhansk airport, however.
Defense Ministry spokesman Bohdan Senyk said
the rebels used anti-aircraft guns and a heavy
machine gun to down the plane, while the
prosecutor general's office mentioned an anti-
aircraft missile.
The plane's tail section lay with other pieces of
scorched wreckage in a field near the village of
Novohannivka, 12 miles south of Luhansk. An
AP reporter saw a dozen or more armed
separatists inspecting the crash site.
The death toll Saturday exceeded the 46 who
died after a fire and shootings in Odessa on May
2 and the 12 troops who died May 29 when
rebels shot down a helicopter near the eastern
city of Slovyansk.
The Kiev government has accused Russia of
permitting three tanks to cross the border into
eastern Ukraine, where they were used by
rebels. Russia denies supplying the separatists.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said
Russia had stockpiled both tanks and weapons
for the rebels at a depot in southwest Russia.
"Separatists in eastern Ukraine have acquired
heavy weapons and military equipment from
Russia, including Russian tanks and multiple
rocket launchers," U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
"Russia will claim these tanks were taken from
Ukrainian forces, but no Ukrainian tank units
have been operating in that area.
We are confident that these tanks came from
Russia."
NATO released images on Saturday that it said
showed recent Russian tank movements near
the border.
The tanks seen in Ukraine, NATO said, "do not
bear markings or camouflage paint like those
used by the Ukrainian military. In fact, they do
not have markings at all, which is reminiscent
of tactics used by Russian elements that were
involved in destabilizing Crimea."
Tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated
in February after pro-Russian President Viktor
Yanukovych was driven from office by protesters
who wanted closer ties with the European Union
and an end to the country's endemic corruption.
Russia then seized and annexed Ukraine's Black
Sea peninsula of Crimea after a disputed
referendum. The U.S. and Europe rejected the
annexation and responded with financial
sanctions targeting individual officials they
deemed to have played a role. They have held
off on widening the sanctions to the Russian
economy but have not ruled that out.
"Comments from U.S. officials are now quite
specific, and I would expe