Ukraine military plane downed, 49 die
KYIV/NOVOHANNIVKA Pro-Russian separatists shot down an army transport plane in east Ukraine on Saturday, killing 49 servicemen and dealing a blow to a military campaign to defeat the rebels and hold the country together.
President Petro Poroshenko summoned security chiefs for talks and promised an “adequate” response after the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile as it came in to land at Luhansk airport near the border with Russia.
“All those involved in cynical acts of terrorism of this magnitude must be punished,” he said, declaring Sunday a day of mourning for 49 killed. Charred debris was scattered for hundreds of metres over the sloping wheat field where the plane came down overnight near Novohannivka. The tail section jutted up from the ground, with parts of the engines, fuselage and other parts lying around it. A platoon of rebel forces clad in camouflage fatigues scoured through the ruins for ammunition that had been intended for the government forces in east Ukraine.