Getting more info tat Putin's fingerprints are on this attack:
BLITZER: We're awaiting the President of the United States momentarily. He will be going out to the South Lawn of the White House to make what's being described as a significant statement, the U.S. reaction to what's going on in the Ukraine right now. The impact on U.S.-Russian relations that relationship deteriorating, shall we say, by the day.
Barbara Starr is monitoring what's going on. Barbara, you've been doing some amazing reporting on the U.S. intelligence community -- the assessment.
What I'm hearing I suppose you're hearing exactly the same thing is that these pro-Russian separatists, they got their hands on this surface-to-air missile, they launched that missile downed that Malaysian Airliner, they weren't necessarily aiming for that a commercial airliner. They may have been aiming for a Ukrainian cargo plane, is that what we're hearing?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they may have thought it was a Ukrainian cargo plane, but in fact it was a passenger jet. Let me just take this out, we're having a technical issue. But it clearly was a passenger jet.
What we know is they didn't just get their hands on it, now the State Department, the U.S. intelligence community says that this missile launcher crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine in recent days. They believe it was part of a convoy of 150 military vehicles, tanks, artillery, surface-to-air missiles, crossed into Ukraine, turned over to the separatists who already had received training inside Russia and it was used to shoot down the airliner.
One of the big unanswered questions at the moment, Wolf, is whether there were Russian personnel on the scene at the launch point inside eastern Ukraine when the shoot down happened. That's the next step. That's the next question that the U.S. is trying to answer. Were there Russian personnel there? If the U.S. can prove that and it may be very difficult to prove, I think you can only imagine the phone conversation between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Things will get a good deal more difficult if that turns out to be the case -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And we're about to get a major hint from the President of the United States momentarily -- a major statement from him on the investigation, on the U.S.-Russia relationship and more.
Much more of our special coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage. We're awaiting the President of the United States momentarily. He will walk out of the White House, go to the South Lawn, make what's being described as an important statement on the situation in Ukraine, following the shoot down of that Malaysian Airliner with 298 people on board. The President will speak about the nature of the U.S.-Russia relationship right now which is deteriorating significantly by the day.
Let's talk a little bit as we await the President, what's going on. Retired U.S. General James Spider Marks is joining us.
Spider this military takedown -- how sophisticated is it? How much training do these pro-Russian separatists, assuming they did it -- how much training do they need to use one of these surface-to-air missiles to shoot down a plane flying at 30,000 or 35,000 feet?
GEN. JAMES SPIDER MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Wolf, the short answer is they probably need several months to get properly trained and be able to at least at a minimally effective level be able to operate this transporter or erector launcher, this SA-11, this BUK missile. It's not something you walk into, figure out touch a couple of buttons and you can engage an aircraft at 30,000 feet and take it down.
What is important to realize is that these things don't miss. There's like a 95 percent hit accuracy rate. So once it's off the rail, this missile is going to contact what it's going after.
BLITZER: Let me bring Jim Acosta into this. Jim -- as our senior White House correspondent, a late add to the President's schedule. He's been doing it almost every week day -- going out and speaking about this crisis. You're getting a little advanced word -- what are you hearing -- Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, what we're hearing is that the President is not going to make any big announcements or any big changes in policy with respect to Russia, or dealing with Ukraine. I think this is really the White House trying to give the President a chance to update the American people on where things stand right now.
Obviously the President has a lot on his plate. He's got a busy schedule. Today, he's doing some events not related to Ukraine at all and he's going to be headed out west later on this week Wolf, as you know, to do some fundraising.
So I really think this is a chance for the White House to get the President out there give an update to the American people and let them know where things stand. And also I think to repeat some of what John Kerry said yesterday on the Sunday talk shows. He was on every Sunday talk show making some very strong statements about Russia, about their culpability in all of this saying it was pretty clear that the rebels in Ukraine were receiving these missile systems, these missile launchers (ph) from Russia and I think you'll hear the President repeat some of that as well.
BLITZER: Do we have any advance word there -- the past few times, the President went out to speak about Ukraine, he also got into some other issues, including this warfare that's going on between Israeli troops and Hamas militants in Gaza. Do we expect him to get into that today as well?
ACOSTA: Wolf, I would be surprised the President did not address the situation in Gaza. As you know, over the weekend, while he was in Camp David he had a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And then, of course, yesterday on one of the Sunday talk shows or as he was getting ready for the one of the Sunday talk shows John Kerry, the Secretary of State was caught on that hot mike moment remarking that he was sarcastically or strongly questioning whether or not this was a pinpoint operation that the Israelis were conducting in Gaza with respect to rooting out militants from those tunnels and that tunnel operation that the Israelis are conducting right now, so perhaps maybe, we don't know for sure, Wolf maybe the President wants to reset that message as well.
BLITZER: I suspect he will, indeed. Jim Acosta, stand by for a moment. Let's get some analysis of what's going on. Andrew Kuchins is joining us -- senior fellow at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington D.C.
Andrew, why would the Russian military -- I assume it's got to be at the highest level of the political leadership, Putin maybe himself -- why would they supposedly train these pro Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine how to use this sophisticated surface-to-air missile at such a sensitive time knowing the potential for knocking down potentially a commercial airliner? ANDREW KUCHINS, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well,
Wolf, the conflict in eastern Ukraine was reaching a breaking point last week, and the separatists were getting close to the verge of defeat and their main vulnerability was air attacks from the Ukrainian air force which was picking them off like fish in a tank. And so they had to have some capability to address the Ukrainian air force capabilities to take them out, otherwise they were very, very close to being on the verge of effectively losing the conflict.
And losing the conflict is just not possible for Vladimir Putin. He's got too much riding on this. So I think that's basically the explanation for why this very powerful piece of weaponry was introduced into Ukraine about eight days ago.
BLITZER: If the Russian military trained these pro Russian separatists in Ukraine, if they actually handed over the equipment to go across that border, that's going to clearly impact not only Russia's relationship with the United States but with so many other countries at the same time.
Everyone stand by. The President of the United States once again within the next few moments will be making a statement on the situation in Ukraine, maybe a statement also on the situation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Our live coverage will continue in a moment.
BLITZER: We're awaiting the President of the United States momentarily. He will be going out to the South Lawn of the White House to make what's being described as a significant statement, the U.S. reaction to what's going on in the Ukraine right now. The impact on U.S.-Russian relations that relationship deteriorating, shall we say, by the day.
Barbara Starr is monitoring what's going on. Barbara, you've been doing some amazing reporting on the U.S. intelligence community -- the assessment.
What I'm hearing I suppose you're hearing exactly the same thing is that these pro-Russian separatists, they got their hands on this surface-to-air missile, they launched that missile downed that Malaysian Airliner, they weren't necessarily aiming for that a commercial airliner. They may have been aiming for a Ukrainian cargo plane, is that what we're hearing?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they may have thought it was a Ukrainian cargo plane, but in fact it was a passenger jet. Let me just take this out, we're having a technical issue. But it clearly was a passenger jet.
What we know is they didn't just get their hands on it, now the State Department, the U.S. intelligence community says that this missile launcher crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine in recent days. They believe it was part of a convoy of 150 military vehicles, tanks, artillery, surface-to-air missiles, crossed into Ukraine, turned over to the separatists who already had received training inside Russia and it was used to shoot down the airliner.
One of the big unanswered questions at the moment, Wolf, is whether there were Russian personnel on the scene at the launch point inside eastern Ukraine when the shoot down happened. That's the next step. That's the next question that the U.S. is trying to answer. Were there Russian personnel there? If the U.S. can prove that and it may be very difficult to prove, I think you can only imagine the phone conversation between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Things will get a good deal more difficult if that turns out to be the case -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And we're about to get a major hint from the President of the United States momentarily -- a major statement from him on the investigation, on the U.S.-Russia relationship and more.
Much more of our special coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage. We're awaiting the President of the United States momentarily. He will walk out of the White House, go to the South Lawn, make what's being described as an important statement on the situation in Ukraine, following the shoot down of that Malaysian Airliner with 298 people on board. The President will speak about the nature of the U.S.-Russia relationship right now which is deteriorating significantly by the day.
Let's talk a little bit as we await the President, what's going on. Retired U.S. General James Spider Marks is joining us.
Spider this military takedown -- how sophisticated is it? How much training do these pro-Russian separatists, assuming they did it -- how much training do they need to use one of these surface-to-air missiles to shoot down a plane flying at 30,000 or 35,000 feet?
GEN. JAMES SPIDER MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Wolf, the short answer is they probably need several months to get properly trained and be able to at least at a minimally effective level be able to operate this transporter or erector launcher, this SA-11, this BUK missile. It's not something you walk into, figure out touch a couple of buttons and you can engage an aircraft at 30,000 feet and take it down.
What is important to realize is that these things don't miss. There's like a 95 percent hit accuracy rate. So once it's off the rail, this missile is going to contact what it's going after.
BLITZER: Let me bring Jim Acosta into this. Jim -- as our senior White House correspondent, a late add to the President's schedule. He's been doing it almost every week day -- going out and speaking about this crisis. You're getting a little advanced word -- what are you hearing -- Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, what we're hearing is that the President is not going to make any big announcements or any big changes in policy with respect to Russia, or dealing with Ukraine. I think this is really the White House trying to give the President a chance to update the American people on where things stand right now.
Obviously the President has a lot on his plate. He's got a busy schedule. Today, he's doing some events not related to Ukraine at all and he's going to be headed out west later on this week Wolf, as you know, to do some fundraising.
So I really think this is a chance for the White House to get the President out there give an update to the American people and let them know where things stand. And also I think to repeat some of what John Kerry said yesterday on the Sunday talk shows. He was on every Sunday talk show making some very strong statements about Russia, about their culpability in all of this saying it was pretty clear that the rebels in Ukraine were receiving these missile systems, these missile launchers (ph) from Russia and I think you'll hear the President repeat some of that as well.
BLITZER: Do we have any advance word there -- the past few times, the President went out to speak about Ukraine, he also got into some other issues, including this warfare that's going on between Israeli troops and Hamas militants in Gaza. Do we expect him to get into that today as well?
ACOSTA: Wolf, I would be surprised the President did not address the situation in Gaza. As you know, over the weekend, while he was in Camp David he had a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And then, of course, yesterday on one of the Sunday talk shows or as he was getting ready for the one of the Sunday talk shows John Kerry, the Secretary of State was caught on that hot mike moment remarking that he was sarcastically or strongly questioning whether or not this was a pinpoint operation that the Israelis were conducting in Gaza with respect to rooting out militants from those tunnels and that tunnel operation that the Israelis are conducting right now, so perhaps maybe, we don't know for sure, Wolf maybe the President wants to reset that message as well.
BLITZER: I suspect he will, indeed. Jim Acosta, stand by for a moment. Let's get some analysis of what's going on. Andrew Kuchins is joining us -- senior fellow at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington D.C.
Andrew, why would the Russian military -- I assume it's got to be at the highest level of the political leadership, Putin maybe himself -- why would they supposedly train these pro Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine how to use this sophisticated surface-to-air missile at such a sensitive time knowing the potential for knocking down potentially a commercial airliner? ANDREW KUCHINS, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well,
Wolf, the conflict in eastern Ukraine was reaching a breaking point last week, and the separatists were getting close to the verge of defeat and their main vulnerability was air attacks from the Ukrainian air force which was picking them off like fish in a tank. And so they had to have some capability to address the Ukrainian air force capabilities to take them out, otherwise they were very, very close to being on the verge of effectively losing the conflict.
And losing the conflict is just not possible for Vladimir Putin. He's got too much riding on this. So I think that's basically the explanation for why this very powerful piece of weaponry was introduced into Ukraine about eight days ago.
BLITZER: If the Russian military trained these pro Russian separatists in Ukraine, if they actually handed over the equipment to go across that border, that's going to clearly impact not only Russia's relationship with the United States but with so many other countries at the same time.
Everyone stand by. The President of the United States once again within the next few moments will be making a statement on the situation in Ukraine, maybe a statement also on the situation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Our live coverage will continue in a moment.
