US Ambassador says Russia may have helped operate missile that shot down MH17

The US Ambassador to the United Nations told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that pro-Russian separatists were most likely behind the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine yesterday.

Samantha Power said that if pro-Russian militants were found to be responsible for the attack, investigators could not rule out the possibility that Russia offered assistance in operating the complex military hardware.

“Russia can end this war… Russia must end this war,” she said.

Ms Power also tweeted that the number of Dutch killed in the MH17 crash was equivalent to the loss of American lives on 9/11, when considered as a proportion of their total population.

A senior official with the American government also told CNN that none of the passengers on MH17 checked in for the flight using a US passport.

The source said that federal authorities were continuing to make inquiries to determine whether anyone on the flight was a dual citizen.