Dutch journalist claims evidence MH17 shot down by Russian BUK missile

[Vassnti]

The report doesn’t go into blame for the shoot down, mind you, just the cause of the plane falling out of the sky. Under the official restrictions placed upon the investigation, it’s impossible to determine who was operating the Buk system at the time. Whether it was shot down by Ukrainian “rebels,” inspired at the grassroots level by nothing but gumption and Moxie to somehow learn how to operate and fire the three-piece Buk system comprised of a mobile radar, command post, and launcher mechanism, or whether or not the system was operated by Russian special forces, as the United States asserts, is still officially a question.

You may want to change the bold part, the article you link talks about Russian artillery support. No where does it claim Russian special forces opperated the SA-11. Trained Russians with the full system up and running would have been very unlikley to mistake a comercial flight for a military transport, "rebels" like a monkey playing with a rifle are far more likley to blow away any thing that moves.

 

[Transhumanist]

You may want to change the bold part, the article you link talks about Russian artillery support. No where does it claim Russian special forces opperated the SA-11. Trained Russians with the full system up and running would have been very unlikley to mistake a comercial flight for a military transport, "rebels" like a monkey playing with a rifle are far more likley to blow away any thing that moves.

I didn't write the article though, it's link is at the top of the post (the larger font blue word title), so I'll leave it as it is. I do believe doctoring articles isn't allowed on this forum.

I agree there is a problem, I looked over the link too, albeit after you pointed it out and not before, I was more interested in the Dutch investigation, so that's a shoddy piece of journalism from the author.

 

[Penguin]

Dutch Safety Board

 

[Hindustani78]

Australia vows to pursue justice for MH17 victims

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today said his government will "do whatever it can to bring those responsible for MH17 jet disaster to justice", a day after a probe concluded that the plane was shot down by a missile fired from Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Among the passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 who died during a routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur on July 17 last year, 38 were from Australia.

Turnbull's statement comes a day after the Dutch authorities released their final report into the tragedy, which stated that the flight crashed as a result of the detonation of a BUK missile fired from eastern Ukraine.

He said that the "murder" of the 298 people on board was a cowardly crime.
"Those who committed this crime must answer for it. We deplore the conduct of Russia using its Security Council veto in July to block the establishment of a special international criminal tribunal," he said.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told the National Press Club more could have been done to ensure MH17 was on a safe flightpath.

Joyce said Qantas had robust procedures in place to assess risks but security information needed to be accessible to all carriers.

"I think what has been very clear is that the situation that happened over the Ukraine, I think more could have been done sharing information and intelligence to ensure that the operation of aircraft was safe over that path," he said.

"But the information that we have, it is safe to do so. Australia 'will not be bullied by Russia'," Turnbull said.

Australia, led by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, would continue working with Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine to seek justice for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

"We will not be bullied by Russia. We, and all the nations whose citizens share our grief, are determined to do everything we can, no matter how long it takes to identify those responsible and bring them to justice," Bishop said.

 

[Hindustani78]

Reuters / Tuesday, October 13, 2015
A military policeman stands guard in the cockpit of the MH17 airplane after the presentation of the final report into the crash of July 2014 of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in Gilze Rijen, the Netherlands, October 13, 2015. The Dutch Safety Board, issuing long-awaited findings on Tuesday of its investigation into the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane over eastern Ukraine, is expected to say it was downed

 

[Hindustani78]

AFP: Russia sentences elderly Ukrainian to 6 years for 'spying' - read on - uatoday.tv

Yury Soloshenko, the 73-year old former factory head, was sentenced to 6 years in a high-security penal colony

A Russian court sentenced an elderly Ukrainian citizen, who once served as director of a defence factory, to six years for espionage, a court spokesman said.

The classified case against Yury Soloshenko, 73, was brought by the federal security service (FSB) which accused him of trying to smuggle sensitive missile defence technology out of Russia.

"The court has sentenced him to six years in a strict penal colony," a spokesman for the Moscow City Court told AFP, confirming the espionage charge.

Reports have identified Soloshenko as a pensioner from Ukraine's eastern city of Poltava. Until 2010, he was director of Znamya factory in the city, which produced some components for old models of missile systems, including the BUK, the missile system that investigators say downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last July over eastern Ukraine. The factory was declared bankrupt in 2012.

 

[Hindustani78]

Russians did not provide their flight radars data to MH17 investigators, expert says - watch on - uatoday.tv

Criminal investigation results might be out by year end


Ukraine Today's Viewpoint is joined by the aviation expert Mr. Andriy Guck to discuss the Dutch Safety Board final report into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.

The experts concluded that a Russian-made BUK missile brought down the Malaysian Boeing with 298 people aboard.

It was also found that prior to the downing of MH17, some 160 flights by 61 operators from 32 different countries flew over the eastern Ukraine conflict zone between 14-17 July 2014 before the airspace was closed.

The reason for this was the fact nobody, neither the Ukrainian government nor international air operators, took into account the risk of choosing that particular flight route.

"It was stated in the report that no one closes airspace in conflict zones all over the world. This is the worldwide practice and this needs to be changed. And Ukrainian action to close airspace on some altitude is corresponding to this worldwide practice. They have analyzed Congo, Yemen, mail, Somali, Syria, Libya and some other conflict zones and nowhere, except two or three countries, including Ukraine, airspace was closed," the expert said commenting on the accusations that Ukraine failed to close its airspace over Donbas.

"Any claims that Ukraine violated something are groundless. It is not a violation. Every country has its sovereignty and, as it is stated in this report, no one can force a country to close its airspace," Guck added.

"We had seven countries participating in this investigation and providing some information, and the only country that didn't provide the information from its radars was Russia. It is hard to explain what was the reason for this, but, probably, there was something on their radar."

The expert added that in case Russia really doesn't store the radar data, it should have notified the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) about this fact because it contradicts to the international aviation regulations.

 

[Hindustani78]

MH17 families plan Dutch memorial for victims | Zee News
Last Updated: Sunday, November 8, 2015 - 03:03
The Hague: The families who lost loved ones in the shooting down of flight MH17 Saturday began voting on where to build a national memorial in the Netherlands to honour the dead.

Three proposals were unveiled today for monuments to remember the 298 people, mostly Dutch nationals, killed in the 2014 air disaster.

Dutch-led investigators concluded last month that the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down on by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

All those on board were killed when the Boeing 777 was blown up en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

"The Foundation MH17 aviation disaster considers that it is important that the choice of location of the monument is supported by the relatives," the families support group said in a statement.

Three proposals designed by relatives themselves have been put forward -- one at The Hague, one close to Schipol airport where the victims boarded the doomed flight and then in Eindhoven where the bodies were brought back to the Netherlands.

In the Hague, the monument would consist of 10 "crumbled" elements. One central piece would be placed behind the renowned Peace Palace, and "in the area of the nine 'grieving' embassies one single element. This allows the countries to be connected to each other."

In Eindhoven there would be a memorial "at the place where the victims have been carried out of the planes."

The third proposal is to plant a tree for each of the dead at a park close to Schipol airport "where the victims boarded the plane and became a group," the foundation said in its statement.

The designers for the living tree memorial at Schipol-Vijfhuizen park said on their website: "We wanted to create a place where memories can live on, a place where victims can be remembered and cherished by their loved ones."

"So the idea of a living forest monument was born," they said, adding that "a tree symbolises hope and the future in many cultures, a strong symbol." The living forest plan can be seen on the website treesformh17.Org.

Planted in the shape of a ribbon, the forest would be surrounded by a ring of sunflowers, which blossom during the month of July and "which would radiate a golden glow."

The relatives have until November 15 to vote for the memorial of their choice.

It is hoped that a decision can be revealed in December, and work can then start immediately.

AFP

 

[Hindustani78]

http://uatoday.tv/politics/russia-d...mh17-crash-to-dutch-investigators-794534.html

A month after the preliminary report on downing MH17 Moscow sends data to the investigation team

Russia has finally passed on to Netherlands the data concerning the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boing MH17. It was shot down over the occupied eastern Ukrainian territory on July 17, 2014.

More than two years later, Russian authorities sent the radar data to the Dutch embassy in Moscow. Now European investigators must check for authenticity of the data.

The MH17 flight was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. when it was downed above occupied Donbas territory by a BUK missile. All 298 people on board died.


In September, the international commission presented their report on Russia's complicity to the catastrophe. Proving that the plane was hit by a missile, fired from a Russian BUK complex.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/385863.html

23.11.2016
The international investigation group probing the downing of the Boeing passenger airline MH17 in Donbas during July 2014 will ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to review the crime as a result of state treason committed by ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as the subsequent occupation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.


"The MH17 catastrophe is being treated as a military crime and, probably, as a crime against humanity. The joint investigative group of four countries, including Ukraine, will insist the case is reviewed by the ICC's criminal court," head of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yuriy Lutsenko told journalists in the Hague, Netherlands on Tuesday.

Lutsenko said military crimes and crimes against humanity committed in eastern Ukraine were the result of occupation [of Ukrainian lands] by Russia. This was the result of actions taken by Yanukovych vis-a-vis the Russian Federation "to stay in power" during the Revolution of Dignity in late 2013 and early 2014. The PGO head said Ukraine insists on linking the events and requests ands asks the investigative group to study them.

Lutsenko said that Ukraine's investigation is not capable independently to bring former government officials to justice because they are in the Russian Federation.

"Ukraine's does not have the capacity to bringing the organizers of these crimes to justice," Lutsenko said, referring to alleged crimes committed by Yanukovych and his coterie.

"Those who gave the orders [to carry out the crimes] and violate international conventions, including the part of the Geneva Convention on the rules of military engagement, are located in Moscow," he said.

According to Lutsenko, during the course of the year Ukrainian investigators have been in contact with the ICC and provided it with a large amount of documented evidence. He said Ukrainian law-enforcement officials are pursuing their own criminal investigation against the individuals responsible for the crimes.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://uatoday.tv/crime/ukraine-says-100-persons-identified-in-mh17-case-846778.html

All those people were involved in MH17 catastrophe in 'one way or another', Prosecutor said

Identities of 100 people, involved in the MH17 catastrope 'in one way or another', have been established, Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Storozhuk said at a briefing on December 14.

Malaysia Airliner MH17 was shot down over the Donbas conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, resulting in deaths of 298 people.

The international investigators later said the airliner was most likely shot down with a BUK anti-air missile system, brought to Donbas from Russia and fired from a separatist-controlled area.

Mr. Storozhuk said these individuals were involved in transporting the BUK missile system from Russia to Ukraine and operating the vehicle.

He said, the level of responsibility of every identified individual is being determined, and the investigation cannot say who is a witness and who is a suspect yet.

‘One of the versions is, some people carried out certain orders without knowing what for', Storozhuk said.

He also pointed out that the investigation has two other suspects.


The Deputy Prosecutor General added, the investigators are still looking for witnesses, and vowed to keep safe anyone who could share any information on the MH17 catastrophe.

**************
http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/390655.html
Ukraine will support the initiative on the consideration of the criminal case on MH17 crash, which occurred in the summer of 2014 in Donetsk region, in the Netherlands, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reported.

"At the moment, we consider several options. The Ukrainian side naturally supports consideration of the case in a national court of the Netherlands," First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Dmytro Storozhuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

According to him, this is the option that is discussed today.

"Any judicial consideration in Ukraine will be politicized, there will be constant accusations of bias, as Ukraine is a party to an armed conflict on our territory," he added.

************
http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/390644.html
The Ukrainian investigation has identified about 100 people responsible in one way or another for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) downing in the summer of 2014, Ukrainian First Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Storozhuk said.

"The investigation has identified about a hundred people related to the tragedy," Storozhuk said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"We are not saying today who is a suspect or a witness, because the role of each person hasn't yet been determined," he said.

 

[Hindustani78]

The investigative website Bellingcat.com, which uses open sources and social networks to collect evidence related to the downing of flight MH17 in Donbas in July 2014, has spotted a possible organizer of the transportation of the Buk missile launcher, which shot down the Malaysian passenger plane, claiming it was Russian General-Major Sergey Dubinsky.

https://www.unian.info/war/1779881-...anizer-of-relocation-of-deadly-buk-photo.html

22:56, 15 February 2017

Dubinsky is also known as a fighter of the "armed forces" of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") whose nom de guerre is "Khmuryi" ('Gloomy' or 'Grumpy'), Bellingcat said in a new report. According to experts, the relocation of the Buk was arranged by personnel of the 69th separate logistics brigade of the Russian Armed Forces. Such conclusions were made by Bellingcat experts after they had examined images from social networks that were taken in Rostov region amid the transportation of the missile system.


The Bellingcat group has prepared two reports with new details about the MH17 case. One of the reports features "Khmuryi," the other will not be published as it contains information that may derail the investigation.


UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over militant-occupied territory in Donetsk region. All 298 people on board who were citizens of 10 countries were killed in the crash. The majority of the victims, 196, were citizens of the Netherlands. The Dutch Safety Board October 13, 2015, issued a report on the causes of the accident. It was revealed that the plane had been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system. The Joint Investigation Team in its report published on September 28, 2016, confirmed that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk brought to Ukraine from Russia.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.unian.info/politics/178...inister-slams-russias-veto-abuse-at-unsc.html
Ukraine Foreign Minister slams Russia's veto abuse at UNSC
21 February 2017

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who is chairing today's meeting of the United Nations Security Council on unresolved conflicts in Europe, has called to reform the organization to prevent further veto power abuses by Russia.

"We need urgently to reform the Security Council in order to remove the veto power abuses," said Klimkin, speaking at the meeting, Director of MFA Ukraine Political Department Oleksiy Makeiev tweeted. He added that the UNSC should be capable of efficiently addressing "bloody conflicts" regardless of the possible presence of a party to the conflict at this table as the Security Council permanent member.

It is no longer acceptable that paragraph 3 of Article 27 of the Chapter, namely that "a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting," continues to be blatantly ignored, according to Klimkin.

"It is imperative that clear proceedings are introduced for the proper implementation of this Article," the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia had effectively exercised its veto power to block the resolution o setting up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the downing of MH17.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.unian.info/politics/186...om-ato-only-russia-buk-within-mh17-range.html
On July 15, 2014, a chaplain for the Ukrainian Armed Forces named O. (short for "otets," or "father") Gredil Mykhailo uploaded a handful of photographs showing a Ukrainian Buk missile launcher in a field that appeared to function as a Ukrainian military camp, according to Bellingcat, an international OSINT community.


"We can now say that this Buk missile launcher was not located in eastern Ukraine, but instead in the Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine," Bellingcat reported.

The photographs would not be noteworthy if it were not for two things: the fact that Mykhailo uploaded the photographs two days before the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (July 17, 2014), and that he included geotags indicating that the photographs were taken near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The apparent location of these photographs seemed to contradict statements from the Ukrainian government claiming that there were no operational Buks in the zone of the "Anti-Terrorist Operation," or the "ATO zone."

These photographs gained minor popularity in some circles online after a user uploaded a series of photographs to an imgur [image storage and exchange online service] album showing saved copies of Mykhailo's photographs, including a geotagged photograph of the Buk missile launcher. One of these photographs shows Buk missile launcher 210 of the second battalion of the 223rd Anti-Aircraft Regiment, which is based in Stryi in western Ukraine. The photograph was geotagged in the Yasinuvatsky rayon (district), north of Donetsk. Another photograph, uploaded to the popular Russian forum Yaplakal, shows Mykhailo inside a control unit, geotagged in the Perevalsky rayon near Debaltseve.

However, after nearly three years, the photographs have been geolocated thanks to members of the Smolensk Forum. Mykhailo's photographs were not actually taken in eastern Ukraine, but instead on the Myrhorod Air Base in the Poltava Oblast, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines of the war.


According to the imgur post, Mykhailo replaced the geotags with a location near Moscow, Russia after people found out about some of his photographs geotagged in the ATO zone. He also claimed that the previous images were photoshopped. However, Mykhailo's own reaction of August 2, 2014 does not mention this, but only that the location is hundreds of kilometers from Donetsk.

An article and photographs of May 10, 2014, on Mykhailo's church website make clear that he visited a military camp before in May 2014. Two photographs in the article show Buk missile launcher 231 and Buk missile loader 222, which belong to the 2nd battalion of the 223rd Anti-Aircraft Regiment. One of the photographs shows, apparently, an airfield landing strip. Comparing May and July 2014 photographs of Mykhailo's visits to the air defense base makes clear that he visited the same military camp in the area.


"With this photograph geolocated, another question regarding the location of Buk missile launchers at the time of the downing of MH17 has been answered. Previously, footage aired on Ukrainian Military TV the day before the downing was a significant question, but we were able to geolocate this footage in March 2016 in the article "Ukrainian Buk Footage from July 16, 2014 Geolocated." Now, with the geolocation of the Mykhailo photographs, we see another instance in which Ukrainian Buks thought to be within range of downing MH17 were, in reality, quite far from the MH17 crash site, let alone the front lines. Still, after nearly three years, the only operational Buk missile launcher observed within firing range of MH17 on July 17, 2014 was the Russian Buk 332, from the Kursk-based 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade," Bellingcat experts said.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.unian.info/war/2197786-bellingcat-no-doubt-mh17-downed-by-russian-buk-missile.html

Bellingcat, an international OSINT community, considers a new photo of Buk missile, published by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) on Thursday, October 19, a proof that Boeing, carrying the flight MH17, was shot down by the Russian anti-aircraft missile system, the DW's Ukrainian service reported

According to the investigative group, the distinctive features of the air defense missile launcher depicted in the photograph are totally similar to those seen on the right side of Buk 332 in Russia almost four weeks before the crash of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft in the east of Ukraine, DW reports.

"After today, with the ninth piece of visual evidence publicly available showing the weapon belonging to the Russian Armed Forces in eastern Ukraine, there is no room left at all for doubt," Bellingcat said.


JIT has not yet announced publicly its conclusions regarding the photo. According to the investigators, the photograph was probably taken in the town of Makiyivka on July 17, 2014, on the day of the tragedy. JIT suspects this is the exact Buk launcher that shot down MH17 flight and has asked netizens to assist the investigation by providing details regarding the image and any circumstances related.

The JIT had previously issued a report stating that retired Russian Major General Sergei Dubinsky ("Khmuryi") carried out the transportation of Buk 332, from which the MH17 flight was allegedly shot down.