Outside Parliament House in Canberra yesterday Germain Ifedi Seahawks Jersey , relatives of the Australian victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 take part in a service to unveil a memorial on the first anniversary of the plane’sdowning. All 298 passengers and crew on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed on July 17, 2014, when it was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine. The majority of the dead were Dutch, but there were also 40 Australian citizens and residents on board. — AFP
IN a solemn procession, residents of the Ukrainian village where a Malaysian airliner was shot down with 298 people on board a year ago marched to the crash site yesterday. Half a world away Shaquill Griffin Seahawks Jersey , Australia’s prime minister remembered the “savagery” of the attack as he unveiled a plaque in Canberra set in soil from the field where the wreckage fell.


The two ceremonies come amid a sharp dispute over who was responsible for downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.


Ukrainian and Western authorities say the plane was downed, most likely by mistake Ethan Pocic Seahawks Jersey , by a missile fired either by the separatists or the Russian troops who they say back the rebels with weapons and manpower.


A preliminary report released in the Netherlands last year said the plane had no technical problems in the seconds before it broke up in the sky after being struck an object.


Several weeks before the plane was shot down, Russia-backed separatists had bragged about acquiring a missile system and had downed several Ukrainian military aircraft in eastern Ukraine, killing 49 people in one incident.


The rebels and Moscow say the separatists had no such missile systems at their disposal and that the plane was hit by a Ukrainian warplane or a Ukrainian-fired missile.


But the rebel denials of shooting down MH17 have been increasingly challenged. The Ukrainian government has also provided purported communications intercepts that it says show rebel involvement.


In the eastern Ukrainian village of Hrabove, 200 residents carrying flowers gathered in a church for a memorial service and procession to nearby fields organized by local leaders and the rebels who control the area.


The procession mainly consisted of women and children who carried icons and chanted Orthodox liturgical music, with the perimeter of the march guarded by men in Soviet military uniforms.


They joined about 100 other people carrying separatist flags and those from the countries of the victims to stand by a small stone at the crash site that bore a plaque saying: “To the memory of 298 dead Kam Chancellor Seahawks Jersey , innocent victims of the civil war.”


Some of the mourners held banners accusing the Kiev government of waging a war on them and likening the MH17 victims to those killed in indiscriminate shelling in the past year and a half.


The United Nations says at least 6,400 people have been killed since the separatist conflict began in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.


Alexander Hug, deputy chief of a monitoring mission in Ukraine, was one of the first international observers to arrive at the crash site a year ago. Speaking to reporters in Kiev, he said he was shocked at how little had changed. “Ordinary people in Donbass (eastern Ukraine) Doug Baldwin Seahawks Jersey , like the 298 on board MH17, continue to die and suffer,” he said.


Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko, who arrived at the commemoration ceremony on crutches, accused the Ukrainian government of taking down MH17.


“Any death is a tragedy Earl Thomas III Seahawks Jersey , all the more so when civilians die,” he said, surrounded by a posse of gunmen, adding that the rebels did their best to help the investigators and the families of the victims. “We are still willing to help those people who will, in the end 12th Fan Seahawks Jersey , uncover the truth and make sure that criminal illegal authorities of Ukraine who allowed this tragedy to happen will be punished.”


In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott unveiled a plaque, set in soil that a police officer brought back from Ukraine, listing 40 victims “who called Australia home.”