Olga Bielkova: Putin needs to call out pro-Russian rebels

 My heart is bleeding for the innocent victims who died in a crash of a Malaysian airliner two days ago. This tragedy left no one in Ukraine without tears. For many months, we have been mourning the death of the sons and daughters of Ukraine, and now that the Kremlin's belligerence has claimed innocent lives of Dutch, Malaysian, Australian and Indonesian citizens, it pains us no less and our entire nation is grieving with the world.

As an investigation into the exact details of the crash continues, it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, but to understand the broader context in which this catastrophe has occurred, we must chronicle the events leading up to it and examine the root causes of the unrest in eastern Ukraine.