This is an entirely new post regarding the shoot down of An-26 supply plane.I spent too much time going through the news this a.m. Going back to when it seems this news first broke? And then looking at what was being reported/covered even before that event took place.
Timeline begins here:
4-Antifascist separatists surround airport in Lug(h)ansk
Independence supporters have surrounded the airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, but it is still controlled by the Ukrainian Army, Luhansk Commandant Sergei Grachev told RIA Novosti.
We have the antifascists surrounding the airport. The airport itself is controlled by Ukrainian Army, however it is surrounded.3-Ukraine forces had ended rebel blockade of airport?
Ukraine said on Monday its forces had ended a rebel blockade of a strategic airport in the east.Ukraine's military said its warplanes had inflicted heavy losses on the pro-Russian separatists during air strikes on their positionsPoroshenko's office on Monday said Ukrainian forces, backed by warplanes, had broken through rebel lines surrounding Luhansk airport, ending a separatist blockade.Rebel fighters on Monday were evacuating about 200 Donetsk residents by bus across the Russian border into the Rostov area.
Rebels surround airport. Ukraine claims to have ended rebel blockade via airstrikes.Did the Ukraine military really end the rebel blockade? Or did they believe they had?Or, did they intentionally misrepresent the clearing of the blockade? Earliest reporting out of Ukraine regarding lost contact of the supply plane. 2-Ukraine says contact lost with military transport plane over rebel area
Ukrainian security officials said on Monday that contact had been lost with an An-26 military transport plane near Luhansk in east Ukraine where there is heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels."Today, at around lunchtime, contact with this plane was lost. I cannot add anything more," Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, a spokesman for the government's "anti-terrorist operation", said.
Military transport plane. Flying through an area of heavy fighting. To resupply the army stationed at the airport ( reports of bottled water etc.,)1-Separatists claim responsibility for downing of planeGoing so far as saying they had taken the crew members for interrogation
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have claimed responsibility for shooting down a Ukrainian military transport plane, and say four crew members have been taken prisoner.Russia's Interfax news agency on Monday quoted separatists in the rebel-held city of Luhansk as saying the captives are in the border city of Krasnodon and undergoing interrogation.
Details of the shootdown were not clear late Monday. Interfax quoted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry as saying eight people were aboard the aircraft, which was carrying food and drinking water to personnel at checkpoints in the war-scarred east. The ministry also said the plane was flying too high above Luhansk to have been hit by conventional surface-to-air missiles, prompting speculation that rebels either used more powerful Russian missiles, or that the plane was hit by Russian missiles from Russian territory
The Defense Ministry claims the transport plane was too high to have been shot down by conventional surface to air missiles. Was it, really too high? Or had the plane started to come in for a landing and rebels that were still present (though supposed to have been cleared) shot it down? Could have been an easy target? My other thought? Could it (An-26) have been shot down by the Ukraine military? Either accidentally or intentionally? Recall one article above? Quoting "where there is heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels"Would Russia have shot down this plane? I just don't see it!