Ukraine: MH17 memorial plaque unveiled near Donetsk on one-year anniversary

Residents of the Donetsk Region unveiled a memorial stone on Friday dedicated those who died when flight MH17 was downed exactly a year ago. The commemorative stone near the village of Grabovo calls the 298 passengers and crew who were killed victims of the "civil war" in eastern Ukraine. Locals attended the ceremony carrying banners that read slogans such as: "Donbass 4906 - dead, Boeing - 298 dead, Total dead - 5204." They also carried the flags of the ten counties, whose citizens were killed in the disaster, while white balloons were released at the end of the ceremony. The head of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko gave a short speech at the ceremony expressing his condolences to those who lost their lives. A total of 298 people died on July 17, 2014, when the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The circumstances of the crash are still under investigation.