Ukraine Marks ’Day of Mourning’ After 49 Killed in Plane Attack

Local Editor

Ukraine declared a national day of mourning, vowing to retaliate after pro-Kremlin rebels downed a military plane a day earlier, killing 49 personnel in their single deadliest attack against government forces in the east of the country on Sunday.

A commander in the rebel-held eastern city of Lugansk, where the plane was shot down on Saturday, showed pieces of the Ilyushin-76 transport plane's charred debris a dozen kilometers outside the airport.

The man known to his unit said the plane tried to dump fuel after the rebels hit its engines. The four-engine transporter crashed on its second landing approach after being hit by heavy machine gun fire.

Moreover, Ukraine's Western-backed President Petro Poroshenko vowed to deal with the rebels in "an adequate response" after the attack and signaled an imminent intensification of an offensive being waged against the insurgents.

He proclaimed a national day of mourning on Sunday following the event.

Poroshenko spoke moments before a crowd of several hundred smashed windows in the Russian embassy building and overturned cars belonging to its staff.

Russia condemned the Kiev police's inaction as "a grave violation of Ukraine's international obligations," while Washington also delivered Kiev a rare rebuke by urging "authorities to meet their Vienna Convention obligations to provide adequate security."

Sources: News Agencies, Edited by website team