Foxy wrote:

"The free countries of the world need to stand together
on this and not stand or tolerate this illegal
behaviour."

Let's not confuse things and adopt Cold War rhetoric. The US will accept support from any nation regardless of how free it is. Biden has called for a conference of the democratic nations and has included Duterte's Philippines in his invitation. Duterte is no more a democrat or for freedom than Putin.

I think Putin should be curbed, and those nations that think Putin's Russia should be curbed should stand together whether or not they are free countries.

Pro Russian rebels have controlled the
east Ukrainian region since 2014.

US President Joe Biden stated:

"To put it simply: Russia just announced that it is
carving out a big chunk of Ukraine. Who in the Lord's
name does Putin think gives him the right to declare
new so-called countries on territory that belonged to
his neighbours. This is a flagrant violation of
international law and demands a firm response from
the international community."

The Canberra Times has more:

http://canberratimes.com.au/story/7631999/australia-joins-us-europe-in-imposing-sanctions-on-russia/

I think Putin should be curbed,
davidf,
I don't know Putin thinks nor would I ever claim to know what goes through his mind but from what I have witnessed my guess is he simply doesn't want to see Russia descending into another America or West.
I also think that if Russia weakens any more, World peace for want of a better description may be a thing of the past.
We need more than two Super Powers to keep things in check. Would Ukraine be able to fill that gap ? Not if they're desiring to be Western !

"There was a reminder this morning of the Australian connection with Ukraine via the shooting down of Flight MH17. Someone got away with that, too."

I've never been convinced that Pro-Russian separatists even did it.

I used to watch this youtube channel George Webb where he dug right into things.
Something that came out at the time which normal at-home news watchers never saw was a report and photos of a Ukrainian-owned fighter jet which took off armed and came back with 1 missile missing, at the exact time the Malaysian flight came down.

The interesting thing about the Malaysian airlines flight, is that the colours on the tail make it look very much like PUTIN'S plane.

Now, I'm not saying I know what happened, because I don't, I wasn't there.

But if there's truth to the info about the fighter jet, then it certainly seems possible to me the Ukrainians tried to take down Putin's plane and messed up, taking down the Malaysian flight instead by accident.

the colours on the tail make it look very much like PUTIN'S plane.
Armchair Critic,
That's the most plausible I've read thus far ! It'd be interesting to see if Putin's plane was airborne at that time.

Hey Individual,
Yes I believe it was airborne and in the vicinity at the time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I know it's true for a fact, both sides might be willing to lie in a situation where they might be considered responsible for bringing a passenger jet down, but it's possible that's what actually happened.

The news would never bring this stuff to your attention.
They don't investigate, they just report what others are already saying.
This is especially true when there's a narrative to keep or a crisis that can be exploited.