President Obama Asks Russia To Stop Supporting Separatists

President Barack Obama demanded Russia stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine after the downing of a Malaysian airline by a surface-to-air missile he said was fired from rebel territory raised the prospect of more sanctions on Moscow, according to The Associated Press.

At least one American was among the almost 300 killed, Obama said, a revelation that raises the stakes in a pivotal incident in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West, the AP reported.

Calling it "an outrage of unspeakable proportions", Obama stopped short of directly blaming Russia for the incident but warned that he was prepared to tighten economic sanctions, echoing international calls for a rapid and credible investigation and ruling out U.S. military intervention, according to the AP.

With victims from 11 countries across four continents, Obama added that the stakes were high for Europe, a clear call for it to follow the more robust sanctions on Russia already imposed by Washington, the AP reported.

Russia, whom Obama said was letting the rebels bring in weapons, has expressed anger at implications it was to blame, saying people should not prejudge the outcome of the inquiry, according to the AP.

There were no survivors from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and the United Nations said 80 of the 298 aboard were children, the AP reported. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner, it scattered bodies over miles of rebel-held territory near the border with Russia.

More than half of the dead passengers, 189 people, were Dutch, according to the AP. Twenty-nine were Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, nine British, four German, four Belgian, three Filipino, one America, one Canadian, one New Zealand. Several were unidentified and some may have had dual citizenship. The 15 crew were Malaysian.

The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula a month later, according to the AP.

"This outrageous event underscores that it is time for peace and security to be restored in Ukraine," Obama said, adding that Russia had failed to use its influence to curb rebel violence, the AP reported.

The U.N. Security Council called for a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the downing of the plane and "appropriate accountability" for those responsible, according to the AP. Kiev and Moscow immediately blamed each other for the disaster, triggering a new phase in their propaganda war.

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