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Wasting no time, Crimea’s pro-Russian leadership voted to join Russia and set a referendum for 16 March 2014. President Barack Obama warned that a referendum would violate international law and ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine. The referendum was denounced by the new government in Ukraine, and by the US, the EU and Canada. However, after the votes had been counted, officials declared that 97 per cent of the voters were in favour of joining Russia. The referendum had only offered two options: join Russia or enhance Crimea’s independence.

Following the referendum, Russia officially annexed Crimea two days later. According to Russia, this was based on the free and voluntary expression of the will by the people of Crimea at the referendum. While this action provoked renewed denunciations and threats of tougher sanctions and diplomatic isolation, it long remained unclear how far the West was willing to go to punish the Russians. The White House warned that Russia’s actions would ultimately result in economic and political isolation. After weeks of warning about the consequences, the US and EU ordered sanctions, mostly limited to Putin’s allies and people linked to events in Crimea. However, the economic sanctions did cause the rouble to plunge in value. In Crimea, celebrations were held to mark the Russian annexation; in Kiev, Ukrainian government officials said they would never recognise or accept the loss of the peninsula.

This was the first time the Kremlin had officially expanded the country’s borders since the Second World War. After a Ukrainian soldier was shot and killed by gunmen who stormed a military base in Simferopol, the authorities in Kiev stated that the conflict had now reached a ‘military stage’. Ukraine withdrew its forces from Crimea in order to protect their men.

With sanctions against Moscow now in place, on 24 March leaders of the Group of Seven nations came together in The Hague without Russia and agreed to hold their own summit later in the year and to suspend Russia’s participation in the G8 until the country changed course. But in Russia the annexation of Crimea strengthened Putin’s unchallenged political authority and enhanced his wild popularity. It unleashed a nationalistic fervour that drowned out the few voices of opposition or even the voices that cautioned about the potential costs to Russia. To many Russians the new leaders in Kiev were seen as fascists and the new government leading Ukraine was characterised as a junta.

Russia warned that it would protect its ‘own people’ not only in Crimea but, if need be, also in the rest of Ukraine. John Kerry warned that the US would take extreme measures if Moscow meddled in Ukraine’s internal affairs. By the end of March Russia partly withdrew its troops along the Ukrainian border in the southern region of Rostov in Russia following talks between Russia’s foreign minister and his US counterpart. Meanwhile, Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, visited Crimea, promising funds and pay rises.

In this climate of animosity, realising they had the support of the citizens of Russia, the pro-Russian separatists’ movement in southern and eastern Ukraine swelled. On 6 April as pro-Moscow demonstrations erupted in these regions, unidentified gunmen seized key buildings in several cities, including Donetsk, and replaced the Ukrainian flag in front of the regional government office with a Russian one.

Chapter 9

17 July 2014

They had met on a beach road many years ago. Liam Davidson and a couple of friends had been on a surfing trip at Victoria’s Wilson’s Promontory, surfboards strapped to the roof. Francesca was on the roadside with two girlfriends, thumbs out. Naturally the lads pulled over to pick up the three girls, insisting on giving them a ride. Liam instantly took a shine to the one in the wide-brimmed straw hat. Francesca White, whom friends called Frankie, and Liam Davidson had been together ever since.

Their passion for travel had taken them around the world, hiking in Spain, living in France and visiting their daughter, who was volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal. In 2011, Frankie and Liam visited the Annapurna Self-Sustaining Orphan Home in Pokhara, Nepal, where they were both touched by the incredible work being done. Berlin was their latest adventure—a visit to their son, Sam, who had made the German capital his home.

Liam and Frankie had been teachers at Toorak College, a private girls’ high school south of Melbourne, for almost thirty years, but they were so much more than just teachers. Liam loved cycling, and almost every Saturday for fifteen years he clipped into his pedals and started the weekend with his mates. The group of fifty keen cyclists would greet the sunrise with a 35-kilometre loop across the Mornington Peninsula, and enjoy a coffee together afterwards.

But most of all Liam and Frankie were master wordsmiths. At Toorak College, 54-year-old Frankie taught English, history and humanities subjects and had supervised hundreds of students during twenty-eight years as a teacher. She had an enduring passion for arts and literature. But it was Liam, fifty-six, who had taken his love for words one step further. He began writing pieces for small publications as a prelude to his first novel, The Velodrome, which was published after being shortlisted for the Vogel Award. His second novel, Soundings, won the National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction in 1993. Some of his books were short-listed for the Victorian Premier’s Awards. Liam Davidson became a critically acclaimed author in Australia.

The couple had travelled around Europe now for weeks and had met up with Sam during the last week and their daughter, Milly, had also joined them there in Berlin. The four of them had had a picnic in the forest and played Scrabble till late that evening. Having that time together had been wonderful. The whole trip had been especially wonderful.

Frankie and Liam, as well-seasoned travellers, knew that every trip contained at least one bad day. One of those days might be when the rain wouldn’t stop, or you lost your luggage or missed a train or bus. Some incident would always turn up eventually during one leg of any trip, but their European vacation had been nothing but sunshine, happy moments, laughter and good times. It had been perfect, every single day of it.

In Berlin they took a connecting flight to Amsterdam, where they boarded MH17 for the next leg of their journey home. Although they had had great fun, boarding the plane and going home had been no punishment. For the two of them it was time to get back to Australia, time to share stories with friends over a bottle of wine or a pint of Liam’s home-brewed beer.

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If it had not been for the typhoon raging in the Philippines, the Gunawan family would never have boarded Flight MH17. The Gunawans were a close-knit musical family; Hadiono (Budy) Gunawan was born in Indonesia and his wife, Irene, was from the Philippines. Strangely enough they met in Japan. After high school, Irene moved from the Philippines to Japan to sing and become the drummer in a band, and it was there that she met Budy, a guitarist who joined the same band. The two later went on to tour Europe together, playing music and eventually falling in love. After their marriage they settled in Amstelveen in the Netherlands, where Irene gave birth to Darryl and Sherryl, who were now nineteen and fourteen.