Netherlands, Australia Sending Troops to Secure MH17 Crash Site In Ukraine

The interests of both countries in securing the MH17 site are clear: The plane was flying from the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur and many of the 298 victims were Dutch citizens. Not all of the victims’ bodies have been recovered yet. There were Australians and British citizens on the flight as well. Australia is close to hammering out a deal with Ukraine’s government to get its forces, mostly police personnel, in to help secure the site.

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The Dutch are looking at sending combat-ready special forces in to secure the site, which is understandable but raises the stakes — the area around the site is still under the Russian rebels’ control and those so-called rebels have every interest in stifling the investigation. The rebels are even now reportedly using the credit cards and cell phones of the victims that were recovered from the crash.

The Netherlands is poised to send its most elite soldiers to secure the crash site of Malaysian Airways MH17, the Telegraaf reports on Friday.

The paper says all leave for the commandos of the 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade based in Schaarsbergen and Assen has been cancelled and that soldiers will leave for eastern Ukraine this weekend.

In addition, Dutch special forces currently in Mali are being recalled and sent on to the area around Donetsk, the paper says, without quoting sources.

The aim of sending troops is to ensure the 23 Dutch crash investigators and 40 unarmed military police officers can do their job, the paper says.

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With Russia now firing on Ukraine military targets inside Ukraine from Russian territory, it’s not hard at all to see how this may escalate into a full blown world war.

Add to that, the British are considering sending in their forces to secure the site, too. One hit on troops from any NATO ally from Russia or its proxies and things could spiral out of control quickly.

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