The Russian Defense Ministry may have finally unveiled the “smoking gun” able to solve the mystery surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, shot down on July 17, 2014 over the Donetsk Oblast, a province in eastern Ukraine.
The MH17 crash killed 283 passengers from 10 different countries and 15 crew members. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine – but not Russia – seemed to reach a controversial verdict: Moscow did it.
Well, not really, according to a detailed presentation by Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov and Lt. Gen. Nikolai Parshin, head of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate.
The “breakthrough” seems to have come from a JIT briefing last May, which produced fragments of the engine and nozzle of the 9M38 missile, launched by a Buk missile system, which downed MH17. According to Parshin: “Once we had the nozzle and engine numbers, we were able to find out the missile’s number.”
So now we know, via declassified files, that the engine of the missile 9D131 allegedly had the serial number 8869032. And a “passport” for the nozzle cluster 9D13105000 carried the number 8-30-113. The actual missile number was 886847349, they said.
The Defense Ministry established that numbers for the components of the 9M38 missile and the number of units noted in the technical documentation stored at the Dolgoprudny Research and Production Enterprise, outside Moscow, are the same.
So, they were able to establish that the missile was made in Dolgoprudny in 1986 and that it was delivered by rail on December 29, 1986 to military unit 20152 deployed to Ukraine – and never returned to Russia.
According to Parshin, this Ukrainian military unit is now called the 223rd anti-aircraft defense regiment of the Ukrainian armed forces, was renamed by a decree from the Ukraine presidential office.
“Currently, this unit is located in the city of Stryi in the Lviv region, [and] they still have the Buk systems. It is noteworthy that units of the 223 regiment have, since 2014, repeatedly been involved in the so-called anti-terror operation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.”
All documents for the Buk missile system are still stored in Dolgoprudny, and the JIT will be able to examine them. Moscow has already sent the new information to the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko also challenged video footage used by Bellingcat, a UK-based citizen journalist group, allegedly proving that a self-propelled firing system of the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade was involved in the downing of MH17.
A political football of immense proportions
There’s more – and it does not look good for Kiev. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov said: “We have an audio recording of telephone conversations of Ukrainian servicemen made in 2016. An analysis of its content confirms earlier made conclusions about the direct involvement of the Ukrainian side in the crash of the Malaysian Boeing.”
The voice on the intercepted audio allegedly comes from Ukrainian Armed Forces Col. Ruslan Grinchak, in Odessa, during an exercise called Rubezh-2016. Grinchak was part of a brigade responsible for radar control. His unit actually tracked the MH17 flight in 2014.
Discussing the risk of flying through restricted airspace, Grinchak says that unless restrictions are followed “We’ll f***ing f**k up another Malaysian Boeing.“ What he said was actually published by Ukrainian media outlets.
Konashenkov stressed that Kiev provided no radar data whatsoever to Dutch investigators. He also said that all documents from the Ukrainian unit which received the Buk missile back in 1986 should be more than relevant for the investigation. Or Kiev could simply say they have been destroyed.
The ball is now in the JIT court. Moscow has always insisted, in detail, that the investigation has been biased from the start. It never obtained any key evidence from Kiev, relied on sources such as Bellingcat, and totally ignored evidence provided by Russia.
This is a political football of immense proportions – at the heart of the Maidan coup and subsequent, relentless demonization of Russia. But in terms of the human tragedy, the thing that really matters is to establish incontrovertible MH17 facts.
In a statement, the Joint Investigation Team seems to admit as much: “The JIT has taken note of the information that has been publicly presented by the authorities of the Russian Federation for the first time today … The JIT will meticulously study the materials presented today as soon as the Russian Federation makes the relevant documents available to the JIT as requested in May 2018 and required by UNSC resolution 2166.”
So, will Kiev agree to investigate itself?
New information ‘to be assessed’
Meanwhile, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team said on Monday it had requested information on serial numbers on missile components in May 2018, AFP reported.
“The JIT will carefully study the information brought out by the Russian Federation” once the documents are made available, it said in a statement. It added that some information previously provided publicly by Russia such as the alleged presence of a Ukrainian jet near the airliner on radar images “was actually incorrect”.
Also on Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree not to extend an official friendship agreement with Russia.
Evidence for the CCP ?
I’d like you to go to Ukraine and see the people killed in that ‘coup’, tell the average Ukrainian what you think, and get out alive.
Time for the Ukrainian Cossacks to take back the N Caucas
Oh yes, Putin says… so you believe.
Michael Klopman haha…the cattles are crying ot injustice which the Hindu thought of as deities? I heard the Italians loved their felines and the French loved their horses too. got to keep it hush hush..
Civilized? I dunno. Many canines and felines would disagree.
Michael Klopman I laughed tnx
Naw, that’s not racist. Not at all.
Slowly each side lays its cards on the table. Then we can inspect the cards and see whihc make sense
As usual the western controlled JIT will make some lame excues to down play and dilute the relevance of the new evidence provided by Russia.
The west is not interested in truth and justice. They are playing political football.
Expect demonisation of Russia to accelerate.
Not really, if the Ukrainian army can show all the missiles they should have then it’s not over yet
I have never doubted that the corrupt Maidan coup makers in Kiev shot down the plane in order to blame Russia. Time soon for Russia to take back their old territory of eastern Ukraine. And take control of the Sea of Azov.
Galen Linder Unfortunately, the United States is too powerful for now for the rest of the world to ignore it, as much as they might
wish to be able to do so.
More lies from the Katsaps
"Nothing will be done in the west, any evidence, facts or proof will be ignored or suppressed, or at best they will simply disappear down the memory hole."
Well, that’s true, of course, but we are being a bit too "Westerncentric" here. In fact, the credibility of "The West" has been slipping radically in the rest of the world, and if it is seen that The West has backed throwbacks to Hitler to perpetrate a hoax to frame Russia, well, that is important as the World forms opinions and policies based on its interepretation of events.
The Dutch have an obligation to do their part in the Great Game. That’s all you need to know.
It is probable that all the intelligence agencies of the world pretty much understand that Ukraine was behind this.
The serial number is the definitive proof. This discussion is over.
Nothing will be done in the west, any evidence, facts or proof will be ignored or suppressed, or at best they will simply disappear down the memory hole.
After all, does anyone still talk about the non-existence of Iraq’s WMDs, even though the United States attacked Iraq and killed many thousands of innocents, all supposedly because of WMDs?
Disgusting.Deja vu re the Dutch MEP Judith Sargentini’s report on Hungary…Constant hate propaganda.
If true this will increase the stack of demonisation propaganda of the west intent on destroying Russia via diplomatic isolation, sanctions and other means. Quite disgusting. Especially when this involved the lives of the MH17 passengers. JIT needs to come out of this with more evidence before pointing fingers.