President Obama has scheduled a 10:50 AM ET statement from the White House on the situation in Ukraine and last week's downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 near the country's border with Russia. You can watch live
here and we will provide updates throughout his remarks, plus an embedded live stream as soon as it becomes available.
7:53 AM PT: The president just finished his event signing an executive order protecting LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, so things are (not surprisingly) running somewhat behind schedule.
8:00 AM PT: According to MSNBC, White House officials say the president's remarks will focus on (a) evidence tying Russia to the shooting down of the flight as well as the need for there to be an unfettered investigation and (b) what sort of response the U.S. and our allies should make to the attack.
8:08 AM PT: Your eyes aren't deceiving you—this is a new version of the previous post that had been up for about 15 minutes. (We had to post a new one for technical reasons.)
8:17 AM PT: And here comes the president. Before his remarks, he says "Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket and tunnel attacks from Hamas" and announces that Sec'y Kerry is on his way to the country. But he also says he has "serious concerns" about the loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives, and calls for a ceasefire to protect civilian lives in Gaza and Israel.
8:19 AM PT: Now, to Ukraine. "It's now been four days," since MH17 was shot down in area that he notes is controlled by Russian-aligned separatists. "Our immediate focus is on recovering those who were lost, investigating what happened [...] we have to make sure the truth comes out." Says an international team of investigators is in place to conduct a full investigation, but they need unimpeded access to the site.
8:22 AM PT: Obama accuses Russian-backed separatists of impeding the investigation, raising the question: "What [are they] trying to hide?" He also condemns them for removing bodies from the crash site. "Russia has extraordinary influence" over these separatists, some of whom he says are "Russian citizens." He says Putin, who he names directly, has "direct responsibility" for directing the separatists to allow a full investigation. Obama also says that these separatists have not only received training and weapons from Russia, they have received antiaircraft weapons from Russia.
8:23 AM PT: "If Russia continues to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and backs these separatists," then Russia will only "further isolate itself from the international community. [...] Now is the time for" Putin and Russia to "pivot away" from their strategy in Ukraine in order to achieve a diplomatic solution.
8:25 AM PT: The president has concluded his brief remarks without taking questions. The focus: Calling on Russia and Vladimir Putin in particular to (a) allow an unimpeded investigation and (b) calling on Russia and Putin to end their military assault on Ukraine, not just because Ukraine's sovereignty is being violated but also because the the war is now threatening the broader international community.
8:31 AM PT: On MSNBC, Steve Clemons made a good point: While President Obama's remarks did not contain a tangible new policy direction, they made a both tightly linked Russia to the shooting down and also sought to make a moral case against Russia. In that sense, there's actually a striking similarity in substance if not style to President Reagan's Oval Office speech following the downing of KAL 007, a speech which focused heavily on the evidence tying the USSR to the shooting down of that flight and condemning their actions in moral terms, but did not include sweeping policy changes. (In fact, Reagan's remarks concluded with a renewed call for reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons.)