The ser­i­al provo­ca­tions and diplo­mat­ic blun­ders that have has­tened Ukraine’s slide into chaos and mis­ery took a still more trag­ic turn last week when a com­mer­cial air­lin­er car­ry­ing 298 pas­sen­gers and crew was downed over east­ern Ukraine.

The car­nage should serve as a chill­ing mes­sage to Rus­sia and its West­ern antag­o­nists that the time has come to change course.  If so, the inci­dent could mark the point at which Ukraine’s bleed­ing stops and its heal­ing begins.  Read more.