MOSCOW/KIEV, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. A Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 passenger plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine 60 km from the Russian border on Thursday, July 17, and as many as 300 people aboard are presumed to be dead.

The plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 km and was supposed to enter Russia’s airspace at 17:20 Moscow time. Malaysian Airlines confirmed that it had lost contact with the plane over Ukraine.

A source in the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transportation said the plane’s crew had not contacted Russian air traffic controllers. The plane was supposed to fly through Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine’s air navigation service said there were 280 people and 15 crewmembers aboard the plane.

A source in the aviation circles told ITAR-TASS that up to 300 people could have been travelling by that flight. “It crashed 60 km from the border. Its emergency locator beacon sent a signal,” the official said.

Ukrainian mass media said the plane had crashed in the Donetsk Region. The commanders of the army operation being conducted by Kiev in this eastern Ukrainian region said the military had found the crash site north of the city of Torez.

A competent source cited objective control data as indicating that the Ukrainian army’s Buk air defense battalion had been moved to the Donetsk area on Wednesday, July 16. Another such battalion is getting ready for redeployment in Kharkov.

The source said aircraft flying at altitudes higher than 10,000 meters could be reached only by weapons like S-300 or Buk systems. The militia does not have and cannot have such weapons, the source said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered the creation of a government commission, with the participation of ICAO officials and representatives of the Netherlands and Malaysia, to investigate the accident.

The presidential press service said “the armed forces of Ukraine did not take any actions against air targets”.