Malaysia Airlines flight 17 (MH17) was brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014.
The Boeing 777 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 passengers and crew.
Pro-Russian separatists engaging in armed conflict with the Ukrainian military are alleged to have shot the Russian-made Buk missile at the Malaysian commercial aircraft.
MH17 crashed near the Ukrainian village of Hrabove in Donetsk, also known as the Donbas (short for Donetsk Basin).
Ukraine citizens of Russian ethnicity
Ukraine borders Russia on its east — see map below.
Four months before the downing of MH17, Russia annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014.
The Crimean peninsula is a territory which belonged to Ukraine but whose majority population identify as Russian.
More than three quarters (77%) of the people in Crimea said their mother tongue was Russian, according to Ukraine’s last census.
Only 10 percent of Crimeans spoke Ukrainian as their native language.
BELOW: Eastern Ukraine are Russian-speaking in varying degrees — language map
Anglophone countries are those that speak English and among the biggest are USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Francophone areas which include former colonies of France are where their people speak French. Lebanon is one of these that has French as its the second language after Arabic.
In Russophone areas which include the former Soviet republics, many speak Russian.
In Ukraine’s breakaway Donbas region now held by pro-Russia rebels, 74 percent of the population speak Russian as their first language, according to data compiled by an organization called Translators Without Borders.
In emergency, Jew help Jew
Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for the possibility that it may airlift Jews out of Ukraine if Russia were to invade.
Israeli officials assessed that around 75,000 Ukrainians qualify for citizenship in the Jewish state. And Israel is prepared to evacuate these potential Jewish refugees.
What the conflict in Ukraine underscores is that ethnicity and language – together with religion issues elsewhere – are the building blocks of national identity.
DAP’s Bangsa Malaysia is not nationalist
Language, race and religion are important factors that influence where one’s loyalty is directed.
When DAP Christian leaders insist that Malaysia has “no Malays”, “No Indians too” “And zero Chinese”, they’re only gaslighting the gullible — see @hannahyeoh tweet above.
That 95 percent of Chinese voters are DAP supporters speaks for itself on the reality of ethnic bias and how the party’s “colour blind” propaganda is gaslighting its non-Malay base.
DAP sec-gen Lim Guan Eng can blithely proclaim he is not a Chinese – see Astro Awani 2018 report above – because his party supporters are willing for themselves to be gaslit.
Lim Kit Siang said today – see above – that Malaysia must be saved from becoming a Venezuela.
More often however, Zimbabwe is the country cited by Dapsters who claim that Malaysia is a failed state.
Ask these people to describe ‘what is a Malaysian’ and you will get enough gas to heat Berlin for ten winters. Pun intended.
Helen Ang 
Your carefully researched comments are becoming more and more relevant to the raging issues now fanned by the Melaka and Sarawak State Elections to be more enlightened with the conclusion of the Johor State Elections very soon. The future of each and every of the many political parties are deeply involved. The State Elections used to be a cinch for the Big Boy. Now no longer because of the Way, Money has de-constructed our political structure which has no political philosophy of note. It is now MONEY based. Is this the Way UMNO going to re-assume Power again via the capture of the States one after another ? Is this the return of the wise political moves of UMNO’s glorious past and the rise of our beloved Malaysia destined to be one of the four most important small countries in the World being the UK, Japan, Switzerland and Malaysia ? If nothing happens, are we destined to be be the Venezuela of South East Asia as suggested by the sole venerable veteran of Malaysian Politics ? Let us have a look-see at some real stories. In 1952, I was at the same tutorial college as the son of the Venezuelan Ambassador to the Court of St. James, United Kingdom. He was over-aged but was poshly dressed in a camel hair overcoat and a Saville Row suit with bespoke shoes to match at a time when eggs and butter were rationed in the UK. His already had an impressive appearance which was enhanced by his customized hair-do from which one could have a whiff of his gentleman’s eau-de-cologne at a social distance of 2 meters. That was Venezuela in 1952. A country full of oil and other riches. Today, the CNN will show us the bedraggled middle-class Venezuelans with empty stomachs, running in rags along run-down streets and skyscrapers of Caracas of yore. The Malaysia of the future ? The only difference is our beloved Malaysia is multi-racial which is our strength together with our venerable and tested Constitution as safeguarded by our caring and compassionate Yang Di Pertuan Agong and the Royal Sultans. That’s the tale of a once rich and well-governed Nation. But if one is watchful of the news at home, a person could discern certain gems in our daily political scenarios which were fore-seen long ago by no less a person than Einstein who said ‘ In Politics, stupidity is not a handicap.’ However, he was no politician but a physicist ! Not to worry ! But before I proceed further I like to express my humble apologies to my many political friends who are definitely not stupid ! In the year the MH 17 was shot down deliberately over the war-torn Ukraine, it was a well-known fact that war was raging in the Ukraine. After the MH 17 was down, a Malaysian Leader, the Minister of Transport was asked, ‘ Why MH 17 was flying over a country with missiles whizzing all over the sky ?’ His prompt reply,’ No one asked us not to fly there !’ Hmm ? Over 200 innocent men, women and children lives were lost ? Vide. Report in The Star at the material time. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. Little grains of sand make a mighty land ! Little events will either make or break our beloved Malaysia. Akan Datang ! Hence, the importance of the State Elections for us, the Rakyat especially the Johor Stare Elections ! The harbinger of good or bad tidings to come ?
obviously its the return of thief, robber and crook
Despite the many rosy official comments of the recovery of the Malaysian economy and its growth in exports, please note that all financial statistics were quoted in Malaysian ringgits which have depreciated much since pre-Covid 2019 coupled with 4 unnecessary lock-downs and double hit by rampant inflation as well. If the quotes were in US Dollar terms, an entirely different picture emerges. In money matters, if we keep on believing in stories and not the facts which revealed no Policies of any kind have been promulgated for some time, our beloved Malaysia will soon find herself last in the ASEAN community of progress and advancement like in badminton even Singapore beats us. For practical economics, just saunter down to the market and buy a packet of nasi lemak, banana leaf curry or kuey teow, these prices are self-explanatory. Nasi lemak used to cost only 70 sens. Our Rakyat are patient, tolerant and understanding !
Since a biological living and kicking Malaysian has not been produced as yet even in the political rush to create one by verbal means by zealous politicians of short standing, ( It was alleged some one attempted this impossible task recently ), it seems proper within all normal standards to call a Chinese born and bred in Malaysia as a Malaysian of Chinese descent. Or else, say in a place like far off London, New York or Melbourne, when a Chinese who claimed to be a Malaysian but told by the foreign denizens like, ‘ I thought you are from Beijing !’ And for a Jewish person who may appear to be like an African, or an Englishman or even a Chinese, the problem of identification is even far more difficult. A rose is a rose, a rose ! By any colour ? In certain countries, there are strict laws which forbid any one to abuse another person’s race, religion and sexuality ! Think ! And there was this anomaly called Hong Kong where its citizens rushed to call themselves ‘Ramsbotham’ without blushing, not too long ago. With the new Hong Kong security laws, many were forced to close shop so to speak and reverted back to their biological origins. A spade is a spade even in Hong Kong !