View Slideshow Ukrainian emergency workers carry a victim's body in a plastic bag at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove in eastern Ukraine on Monday. Associated Press 
 
 MOSCOW—Russia, in its first detailed version of events surrounding the final minutes of Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.22% Malaysian Airline System Bhd Malaysia RM0.22 -0.01 -2.22% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 32.44M P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap RM3.68 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee N/A 07/26/14 MH17 Crash Site Recovery Deals... 07/26/14 What's News: World-Wide 07/25/14 White House Says Putin 'Culpab... More quote details and news » 3786.KU in Your Value Your Change Short position Flight 17, dismissed accusations that pro-Moscow rebels shot down the plane, instead suggesting that a Ukrainian fighter plane or missile systems could have been involved. 
 
 President Obama speaks on the situation in Ukraine, urging Russia to compel separatists to cooperate. WSJ's Tim Hanrahan and the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute deputy director William Pomeranz join Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero to discuss. Photo: Getty 
 
 What are the next steps in the recovery of the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, and what issues do investigators face at international crash sites? Former National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall joins the News Hub with Sara Murray with details. Photo: Getty Images. 
 
 The elaborate, televised Defense Ministry presentation—at odds with Western and Ukrainian accusations that Kremlin-backed insurgents shot down the plane—came as the U.S. and Russia clashed at the U.N. Security Council on Monday. There, both countries voted in favor of a unanimous resolution that condemned the downing of the jet and called for an independent international investigation into the incident. (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.) 
 
 Russia sought to use both forums to push back against growing international criticism and U.S. and Ukrainian assertions that Moscow could have provided the missile system that brought down the plane. American officials charged that the Russian version of events was a propaganda effort aimed at slowing the international community's response to the geopolitical crisis—or weakening proposed new sanctions to punish Moscow for its role in the conflict. 
 
 At the news conference broadcast from Moscow, Russian air force chief Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev didn't say outright who the ministry thought had fired the missile that apparently brought down the airliner Thursday. Nor did he provide any photographic, radar or satellite evidencethat would show a missile track. 
 
 But he said that Russian radar had spotted a second aircraft in the ill-fated airliner's vicinity just before the crash and that it was likely a Ukrainian fighter jet. A graphic that Gen. Makushev said was based on radar data depicted four commercial planes in the area shortly before the crash, as well as the alleged Ukrainian fighter jet. (View an interactive seating chart of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.) 
 
 His presentation also suggested an alternative theory, that satellite imagery showed Ukraine also had moved missile systems into the area before the incident. The air force chief presented several slides of satellite images he said showed the Ukrainian missile-system movements. 
 
 The suggested version of events echoed much of what has been reported on Russian state television in recent days, which has suggested that Ukraine could have shot down the plane, possibly via one of its fighter planes. 
 
 U.S. officials dismissed the Russian government's claim that a second plane was present when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down last week as "desperate" propaganda. 
 
 U.S. officials didn't provide their own evidence to back their arguments. But they pointed to Ukraine's statements Monday that the country's fighter jets were on the ground at the time of the crash. 
 
 U.S. officials also said that Ukrainian fighters can't operate at 30,000 feet, where Flight 17 was cruising. "The Russian government has a propaganda machine second to none, as these latest conspiracy theories demonstrate," one U.S. official said. 
 
 The Obama administration reiterated its findings that Russia was the likely supplier of advanced SA-11 antiaircraft missiles to separatists, who fired it at the Malaysia Airlines jetliner. The White House said that an international case was building that indicated Russian complicity in the tragedy. 
 
 "What's clear is that there is a picture that's coming into focus," said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. "And Russian claims to the contrary are getting both more desperate and much harder to believe." 
 
 The war of words spilled over into the U.N. Security Council, where after the resolution vote, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin gave sharply different versions of who was likely responsible for shooting down the Boeing 777 on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board. 
 
 "Russia has begun to blame Ukraine itself for the attack though the missile came from separatist territory that Russia knows full well Ukraine has not yet reclaimed," Ms. Power said. 
 
 "Russia must recognize that no move on the geopolitical chessboard with the West can offset the pain being felt by the passengers' families," she said. 
 
 But Mr. Churkin chastised Ms. Power in the council chamber, saying, "There can be no jumping to conclusions or political statements here." 
 
 Mr. Churkin said Ukraine would have to answer to international investigators regarding the activities of its air-traffic controllers, why a Ukrainian antiaircraft missile battery in the area of the crash was "hastily removed," and why Ukrainian radar was operating "at an all-time high" on the day of the incident. He also accused Ukraine of "touching up" intercepted phone calls of rebel commanders with audio from before the date of the crash. 
 
 Kiev has dismissed Russian claims that it could have been involved, and Ukraine's security service has posted intercepted phone calls that it says are of pro-Russia rebel commanders discussing having shot down a plane they discovered afterward was a civilian aircraft. Moscow and the rebels have denied this. 
 
 International forensic experts on Monday inspect the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines jet that was shot down in eastern Ukraine last week. Associated Press 
 
 The U.S., which has largely backed Kiev's version of events, has said its intelligence analysts have evaluated a number of the audio recordings and said they were authentic. 
 
 Earlier on Monday, Gen. Makushev said that the two Russian radar stations near Russia's border with Ukraine observed the presence of the second aircraft over a period of four minutes on the day of Flight 17's crash. These stations couldn't identify the aircraft because it mostly likely wasn't equipped with the system of secondary identification of aircrafts, "which is characteristic of fighter jets," he said. 
 
 Gen. Makushev said that Russian radars could only spot the aircraft at the point of its ascension because the on-duty radars only detected objects at above 5,000 meters. Russian radars spotted the unidentified plane patrolling in the vicinity of Flight 17, "controlling the development of the situation," he said. 
 
 The defense ministry also said it registered the Su-25 fighter jet ascending within close range of several civil aircrafts, including the Malaysia Airlines jet. 
 
 Another top military official, Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, said at the same news conference that the jet came as close as 1.8 miles to Flight 17, which is well within the range of the air-to-air missiles it is usually equipped with. 
 
 Interactives 
 
 Gen. Makushev also showed satellite photos allegedly showing several Buk-M1 ground-to-air missile systems in the area close to where the plane crashed. The systems, he argued, could only belong to the Ukrainian military. The Buks were spotted in Luhansk and Donetsk by Russians, Gen. Kartapolov said, in the days leading up to the crash. 
 
 Ukrainian officials have said its own Buk systems were well out of range, and have accused Russia of giving the rebels a Buk system, which then shot down the airliner. Russia denies this. 
 
 Public tracking website Flightradar24 followed Flight 17 from its departure from Amsterdam through to its final moments over Ukraine. The aircraft was observed to be roughly 10 miles north of the L980 jetway that was a part of its filed flight plan. Such a deviation isn't unusual, though, and can be affected by weather. 
 
 Similarly, Gen. Makushev said the Malaysia Airlines plane deviated from its course by close to 9 miles near Donetsk but then attempted to return to its course, crashing shortly after. Russian radars spotted the Flight 17 rapidly descending 32 miles away from the Russian border, Russian officials said. 
 
 He said Russia is prepared to hand all of the information it has to the European authorities, which included satellite imagery and data from its own radar. 
 
 Russian defense ministry officials also claimed that a U.S. satellite was spotted at the time of the Flight 17 crash and asked that the U.S. release the satellite images from that time. The U.S. didn't immediately comment on the claim. 
 
 —Joe Lauria 
 
 and Julian E. Barnes 
 
 and Jon Ostrower contributed to this article. 
 
 Write to Olga Razumovskaya at olga.razumovskaya@wsj.com ||||| Story highlights Observers say Putin is under pressure at home and abroad 
 
 U.S. officials: Russian troops moving closer to Ukrainian border 
 
 Ukrainian security council spokesman says missiles may have been fired from Russia 
 
 The shootdown comes six days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down 
 
 Were the missiles that shot down two Ukrainian military planes on Wednesday fired from the Russian side of the border? 
 
 That's a possibility that U.S. intelligence analysts are investigating, U.S. officials told CNN on Wednesday. Pro-Russian rebels quickly claimed credit for downing the military planes. And Ukrainian officials claimed the missiles that hit them might have been fired from inside Russia. 
 
 One thing is clear: Tensions in volatile eastern Ukraine seem to be ratcheting up, less than a week after a missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 there. 
 
 Some of the 12,000-15,000 Russian troops near the eastern Ukraine border have broken up into smaller groups and moved within five miles or less of the border, and some are even positioned right at the border, according to two U.S. officials. 
 
 The movement gives the Russian troops the ability to fire surface-to-air missiles, rockets and artillery from inside Russia at Ukrainian positions without having to acknowledge their own presence, the U.S. officials said. 
 
 At the same time, the Russians are continuing to reinforce and ship additional weapons into Ukraine "while the world's attention is on MH17," one U.S. official told CNN. 
 
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 There is also intelligence indicating some rebels have left Ukraine and gone across the border into hiding inside Russia. But the officials said it's not known if any of those people were associated with the shoot-down of MH17. 
 
 "What we know is that, incredibly, even after the shootdown of the Malaysia Airlines flight, Russia has persisted in a pattern of destabilization against Ukraine. It's continued to send fighters and heavy weapons, tanks and missile launchers across the Ukrainian border," said Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. 
 
 If it's confirmed that the missiles that brought down the Ukrainian military planes came from the Russian side of the border, Pyatt told CNN, it would be an "outrageous, continued escalation of the crisis by Russia even after the SA-11 (Russian-made missile system) brought down an airplane, leading to the death of nearly 300 innocent people." 
 
 In response to reports that Russia continues to arm rebels in Ukraine, the White House is now looking at expanding sanctions on Moscow. Just last week, President Obama announced the U.S. would impose new sanctions on specific targets in Russia's critical energy, banking, and defense industries. 
 
 But Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters gathered at the White House that the United States might go even further. 
 
 "We're continuing to develop our own set of options. The fact is that Russia continues to arm separatists. And so we think there needs to be continuing ratcheting up," Rhodes told reporters. 
 
 Putin under pressure 
 
 It's unclear whether Wednesday's shootdown was the work of pro-Russian rebels inside Ukraine, or Russian forces themselves -- and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about or approved the operation. 
 
 For months, Putin has accused NATO of building its forces in the region to threaten Russia. 
 
 "The scale of the training and preparedness is also increasing," Putin said recently. "It is important to prepare our defenses on schedule." 
 
 As calls mount from the United States and other Western countries for more stringent sanctions against Russia, Putin took a more conciliatory tone in his most recent public statement. 
 
 "There are calls for us to influence the militants," he said earlier this week. "We will do everything in our power." 
 
 Jill Dougherty, a Russia expert and CNN's former Moscow bureau chief, said Putin is facing enormous pressure both from the international community and domestically. Business elites are pushing to avoid more sanctions, and Russian nationalists want the country to be tougher on Ukraine. 
 
 "You can almost see it, his balancing, he does this when he talks," Dougherty said. "He is a judo expert. And he is prepared, he's ready to parry, thrust and protect Russia from what he expects are going to be the threats." 
 
 Ukraine: Pilots ejected after planes were hit 
 
 An air defense system shot down the Ukrainian jets Wednesday after the pilots completed a task in Dmytrivka, a village in Ukraine's Donetsk region near the border with Russia, the Ukrainian military's press office said. 
 
 The jets' pilots ejected from the planes after they were hit, the military said. Information on their condition wasn't immediately available. 
 
 Sergei Kavtaradze, an aide to rebel leader Alexander Borodai, the Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, told CNN that the two jets had been shot down by rebel fighters using a shoulder-fired missile system. 
 
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 But Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said preliminary information suggested the missiles might have been launched from inside Russia. 
 
 The planes were flying at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) when they were hit, he said. 
 
 News of the jets' downing Wednesday comes six days after the deadly crash of the civilian passenger plane Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 Ukrainian officials have previously accused pro-Russian rebels of shooting down several military aircraft. 
 
 In the week leading up to the July 17 crash of MH17, Ukrainian officials said an Antonov An-26 transport plane and a Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet had been brought down. The Ukrainian military said the missile that struck the Su-25 had been fired from Russian territory. 
 
 The latest reported shootdown highlights the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions between the rebels and Ukrainian security forces. 
 
 A CNN team on the ground in Donetsk was turned away by rebel fighters at the entrance to the town of Snizhne, near Dmytrivka. The militants said they had orders not to allow people to travel farther because of fighting. 
 
 A jet could be heard passing periodically very high overhead, while on the ground, ambulances rushed past, as did a convoy of rebel fighters in civilian vans and cars. 
 
 Claim and counterclaim 
 
 The first caskets carrying remains of the crash victims arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday, where they were met by family members, Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima and other dignitaries. About two-thirds of the 298 victims were Dutch. 
 
 As the solemn tribute continued, accusations did not stop. 
 
 Meanwhile, the finger-pointing continues over who was responsible for bringing down Flight MH17, a Boeing 777. 
 
 U.S. officials say pro-Russian rebels were responsible for shooting down that plane, but they say they now believe it's likely the rebels didn't know it was a commercial airliner, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday. 
 
 However, Vitaly Nayda, Ukraine's director of informational security, told CNN's Kyung Lah that the person who shot down the flight was "absolutely" a Russian. "A Russian-trained, well-equipped, well-educated officer ... pushed that button deliberately," he said. 
 
 Moscow has denied claims that it pulled the trigger. And Russian Army Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov suggested a Ukrainian jet fighter may have shot the plane down. Ukraine's government rejects that claim. ||||| KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two military aircraft carrying the first bodies of victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash left the embattled plains of eastern Ukraine Wednesday, bringing some consolation to grieving relatives who still must wait for positive identifications and answers about who caused the disaster. 
 
 Dutch cargo plane crew members wait as Ukrainian honor guards load a coffin with the body of a Malaysian Airlines plane passenger in Kharkiv airport, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 23, 2014. The Dutch government... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman lights a candle near flowers and candles placed in honour of 3 citizens, a mother,17 year old daughter and 13 year old son who were among the victims of flight MH17 in Delft, Netherlands, Wednesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ukrainian honor guards march away from a cargo plane, as Dutch crew members load a coffin holding the body of one of the Malaysian Airlines plane passengers in Kharkiv airport, Ukraine, Wednesday, July... (Associated Press) 
 
 A youth holds a placard during a rally to seek justice for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, outside the Parliament house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, July 23, 2014. A team of Malaysian... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ukrainian honor guards lift up a coffin, holding the body of one of the Malaysian Airlines plane passengers, to load it onto a Dutch cargo plane in Kharkiv airport, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 23, 2014.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Indonesian Christine holds a portrait of her fiance Willem Grootscholten of the Netherlands who was a passenger of the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, at her guesthouse in Bali, Indonesia, Wednesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Dutch government declared a day of national mourning as the country prepared for the arrival of the first bodies in the afternoon. The crash on Thursday killed all 298 people — most of them Dutch citizens — aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. 
 
 Ukraine and western nations are pressing the pro-Russian rebels who control the crash site to allow an unfettered an investigation, something Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would use his influence to achieve. Though confident that a missile brought down the aircraft, U.S. officials say Russia's role remains unclear. 
 
 Two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian, departed at midday, heading for Eindhoven air base, to be met by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of relatives. 
 
 For one grieving mother, the arrival of the bodies marked a new stage of mourning and brought to an end the pain of seeing television images of victims lying in the undulating fields or in body bags being loaded into a train. 
 
 "If I have to wait five months for identification, I can do it," Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son, Bryce, and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died in the crash, said before setting off for Eindhoven. "Waiting while the bodies were in the field and in the train was a nightmare." 
 
 Dutch government spokesman Lodewijk Hekking said about 60 coffins were expected, but the number wasn't immediately confirmed. 
 
 There was confusion as well about how many of the 282 corpses which the rebels said they have found were on the train which arrived in Kharkiv, a government-controlled city, on Tuesday. 
 
 Jan Tuinder, the Dutch official in charge of the international team dealing with the dead, said that at least 200 bodies were aboard the train and that more remains could be found once the body bags are examined fully. 
 
 Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said Wednesday that Dutch authorities had delivered the plane's two "black boxes" to the agency's base at Farnborough, southern England, where information from the data and voice recorders will be downloaded. 
 
 The Dutch Safety Board announced that it will lead an international team of 24 investigators, and said unhindered access to the crash site is critical. 
 
 "At the moment, there are no guarantees for the investigators' safety" at the scene, the board said, adding that it "and other parties" are working to get access to the site and to secure it. 
 
 Wreckage of the Boeing 777 fell on territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists who have been battling the Kiev government since April. U.S. officials say the plane was probably shot down by a missile, most likely by accident. 
 
 The European Union on Tuesday imposed sanctions against more Russian individuals but refrained from targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy while waiting for clearer evidence of Moscow's role in the disaster. 
 
 Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for "creating the conditions" that led crash, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement. 
 
 The officials, who briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used, said the plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The officials cited intercepts, satellite photos and social media postings by separatists, some of which have been authenticated by U.S. experts. 
 
 The intelligence officials were cautious in their assessment, noting that while the Russians have been arming separatists in eastern Ukraine, the U.S. had no direct evidence that the missile used to shoot down the passenger jet came from Russia.
– The investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines MH17 took big steps forward today, with victims' bodies finally arriving by train in a Ukraine town and Malaysia declaring that the black boxes are in "good condition." But Moscow, in the meantime, sought to cast doubt on the generally accepted theory that pro-Russian separatists were to blame, reports the Wall Street Journal. At an official briefing last night, the defense ministry said that its radar spotted a second aircraft in the vicinity and that it was probably a Ukraine fighter jet, which could have shot down the plane. The air force chief also suggested that a Ukraine missile system could have hit the plane from the ground, and he said satellite imagery suggested that Ukraine had been moving such systems into the area. He offered no proof, but as Katie Stallard at Sky News writes, "Russia doesn't need to prove its case—all it needs is to create one, to insist that there are different versions of events, that there is credible claim and counter-claim." Meanwhile, the refrigerated train carrying passengers arrived in the Ukraine town of Kharkiv, reports the AP. Forensic experts from the Netherlands, which is taking the lead in the investigation, were to prepare the bodies today for transport to Amsterdam, probably tomorrow. Meanwhile, Malaysia's prime minister declared the black boxes to be in "good condition," reports MarketWatch. Malaysia will hold them until they are turned over to international investigators.