If you're one of those who thought the attack on a civilian plane with Russian missiles would change everything, or even something, you lost. President Obama wagged his finger on Monday, the European Union failed to impose new sanctions on Tuesday, and Russian-armed rebels shot down two more Ukrainian fighter jets on Wednesday. Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine continues as usual.

The so-called Ukrainian separatists—funded, armed and trained by Russia if they aren't Russians themselves—took credit for shooting down the Ukraine aircraft, even as they deny firing the missile that destroyed the Malaysian plane that carried 298 innocents to their deaths. Ukraine's Sukhoi-25 fighters were hit near the Russian border and not far from last Thursday's crash site.

"According to our preliminary information, [the planes] were downed from abroad," said Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian government—meaning from Russian territory.

A cross-border strike wouldn't be the first. A day before the Malaysian plane was hit, Ukraine's government said another of its Su-25s was shot down by a surface-to-air or air-to-air missile fired from inside Russia. Earlier last week a Ukrainian military transport plane was hit at high altitude by an advanced antiaircraft missile, probably a Russian-made Buk. Ground-to-ground rockets are routinely fired from Russia into Ukraine, according to several videos taken of the attacks.

U.S. intelligence briefers told reporters this week in Washington that Russia has continued to send missiles, tanks and other sophisticated weapons to the rebels since the Malaysian murders. The U.S. released satellite imagery of what it said was a Russian training facility for separatists near the Ukrainian border and the movement of a surface-to-air missile launcher into Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the world's media hang on any hint of conciliation from President Putin, as if he will suddenly turn into Vlad the Peacemaker. He won't change until he concludes that the costs of his aggression is too high to sustain. So far the costs have been minuscule, and Mr. Putin is reacting with predictable contempt. In two public appearances this week he blamed Ukraine for the downing of MH17 and brushed aside Western pressure to cooperate on the investigation and stop underwriting the war in eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Putin has taken the measure of Barack Obama and sees a President who won't even speak clearly about Russia's culpability in shooting down a passenger jet. Why should he heed anything Mr. Obama says?