The biggest clue so far into who may have shot down
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 might be what Ukrainian officials say are
intercepted communications between pro-Russian rebels operating in eastern
Ukraine.
The recordings, translated and distributed by
Ukrainian officials, begin with an alleged militant informing others that a
plane has been shot down.
The communication picks up later, once the alleged
rebels reach the scene of the crash.
Here's a segment of a conversation between an
alleged pro-Russian rebel named Major and another identified as Grek, per
Ukrainian authorities:
Major: The plane broke into pieces
in the air ... we have found the first 200 (dead). It's a civilian."
Grek: "How are things going
there?"
M: "Well, we are 100% sure
that it was a civilian plane."
G: "Are there a lot of
people?"
M: "F--k! The debris was
falling straight into the yards."
M: "Here are remnants of
internal brackets, chairs, bodies."
G: "Are there any
weapons?"
M: "Nothing at all. Civilian
belongings, medical scraps, towels, toilet paper."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Friday
blasted the "terrorists" he blamed for shooting down the plane a day
earlier, with 298 people aboard.
CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of
the phone call, and it is not known if the recordings were edited or when they
were made.
But Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a CNN military analyst,
said he would not be surprised if Ukrainians were able to monitor the
communications of the rebels.
"Ukrainian intelligence, they're pretty good in
their own territory," he said Friday on CNN's "New Day."
In a final segment of the alleged intercepted phone
calls, an unidentified militant allegedly speaks with a Russian Cossack, Mykola
Kozitsyn.
Militant: "On TV, they say
like it is a Ukrainian An-26, a transport plane. But the writing says 'Malaysia
Airlines.' What was it doing over the territory of Ukraine?"
Kozitsyn: "Well then it was
bringing spies. Why the hell were they flying? This is war going on."
While these recordings have garnered worldwide
attention, they are not the first alleged intercepted calls that Ukrainian officials
have released. Others were released earlier this month.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told CNN on
Friday that the phone calls were intercepted
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