By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- When Ukraine's Ambassador Sergeyev held a UN press conference on July 17, it was to show slides alleging Russian control of anti-Kyiv forces in Luhansk and Donetsk. Only at the end of the briefing was Sergeyev asked about the then-breaking news of the Malaysian Airlines plane down near Donetsk.

Before that, Inner City Press asked Sergeyev about the airstrikes which killed 11 in an apartment building in Snizhne -- he blamed this on “terrorists,” without explaning how they might have a plane to do strikes -- and about this report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe:

“In Dnipropetrovsk, the SMM met with the head and the deputy head of the ‘Svoboda’ party branch of Pavlohrad, which claimed to have 200 members. The interlocutors explained that ‘Svoboda’ had created its own battalion, named ‘Sich’, which operates under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and was likely to be deployed to the east in a few weeks. The interlocutor said some members were already undergoing training in Kyiv.”

  Sergeyev gave a few answers: that yes, people can join the government forces as volunteers. Then the ever-helpful sidekick of the UN Correspondents Association asked a softball follow-up, encouraging Sergeyev to say Swoboda is not in the government.

  Inner City Press - now on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access as well -- then asked, but Swoboda's “Sich” battalion is with the government, as the OSCE says?

  On financial matters, Inner City Press asked about the new US sanctions, and about Ukraine needing more than the $17 billion program of the IMF (this last was not answered).

As the UNTV cameras went off, Sergeyev was shown news of the Malaysian Airlines plane downed on a smart phone. Soon there was talk of a UN Security Council session, unconfirmed. We will have more on all this. Watch this site.