Investigators have revealed the evidence they believe proves Russia was responsible for downing Flight MH17, killing 298 people.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was a passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on the 17th of July 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers. Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777, was lost when it was about 30 miles from the Ukraine–Russia border and wreckage of the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 25 miles from the border.
The shoot-down occurred in the War in Donbass, during the Battle of Shakhtarsk, in an area controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic. The crash was Malaysia Airlines’ second aircraft loss during 2014 after the disappearance of Flight 370 on 8 March.
The responsibility for investigation fell to the Dutch Safety Board and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team, who have concluded that the airliner was downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. According to the JIT, the Buk that was used originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade of the Russian Federation, and had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area, and returned to Russia after it was used to shoot down MH17.
“The Buk that was used came from the Russian army, the 53rd brigade,” Chief Dutch Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke told Reuters.
The following is a statement by the NATO Secretary General on MH17 investigation:
“The Netherlands and Australia have announced that they hold Russia responsible for its part in the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014. I call on Russia to accept responsibility and fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability, in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2166.
Yesterday’s interim report of the Joint Investigation Team on the downing of MH17 concluded that the missile launcher used to shoot down the plane originated from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Brigade of the Russian Federation, stationed in Kursk.
The downing of MH17 was a global tragedy, and those responsible must be held accountable. NATO has repeatedly expressed its full support for the efforts undertaken by the Dutch authorities and others to shed light on what happened on that terrible day, and to achieve justice for the 298 people who were killed and their loved ones.”
Our turn now to stand 100% behind the Dutch!
Agree.
EU, Brexit and political rivalries between France UK Germany aside we always have a strong bond with the Netherlands, like Norway.
And they are embedded with our RM.
When I was a midshipman in Fearless the Dutch marines came aboard with our bootnecks for exercises. They looked like a bunch of not very pleasant pirates but were totally pleasant and professional. The booties had a lot of respect for them.
UK Netherlands Amphibious Force still exists I think?
Yes, I think so
Absolutely …. Russia is rapidly turning into the new North Korea, very sad to see.
We all had such high hopes for Russia when the Cold War ended, what a shame they have picked such a dark path to follow.
Where is the evidence though? They have just announced what they think happened and what was used, how do they know it happened like that? The reason they can’t reveal the evidence is because the four countries involved in the investigation signed an NDA that prohibits the release of evidence to the public unless all four countries agree. And of course one of those four countries is Ukraine, although you wouldn’t know that reading this article, or in fact any article in the western media. And a couple of weeks before the World Cup starts and a few days after… Read more »
You must have seen a different news report. The news I saw clearly identified the TEL by a different wheel on one side and markings on the TEL. News report said dashcam and open source Social Media image posts were used to track the vehicle to and from Kursk. Bellingcat published much the same material 2 years ago.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35654692
A few days ago Bellingcat claimed they had traced the high pitched voice intercepted voice message claiming presence of the Bhuk to Oleg Vladimirovich Ivannikov a GRU officer.
The new report is a rehash of the Bellingcat investigation. The new evidence has not been released as they have said they will wait until it gets to court (so that’s never then) And the Bellingcat investigation, it’s run by a U.K. based team of journalists and bloggers and every single piece of evidence presented was off social media, is this what counts as hard impartial evidence now? I’m not saying it wasn’t a Russian missile, I’m just intelligent enough not to take what our governments and mainstream media tell me as absolute gospel which unfortunately quite a lot of… Read more »
Or you just end up believing what the Kremlin wants you to believe.
I think it’s better to be sceptical and read and listen to both sides of any argument.
Rather than being a sheep.
If you think that anything that comes out of Russia is a valid argument, then you sir are a tool.
Oh god. Was it Russia that misled parliament and the British public over WMD’s in Iraq? Did they use all but one national newspaper to print negative Saddam stories in the two weeks before the war, did they print the pictures of 12 MP’s on a dartboard and call them traitors in the largest selling national newspaper on the crime of opposing the war. All that causing 179 British service personnel to be killed on lies, 179 British families ruined for life for dodgy dossiers and the media’s lust for conflict to make money. No that was our whiter than… Read more »
Perhaps you would like to show the evidence that supports the Russian view. None of it I have seen has any substance at all expecially the computer game footage. Being open minded is clearly a positive except when open minded means equating provenly fake unsubstantiated and contradictory evidence on one side with filmed evidence on the other actually shot by Ukranians in that breakaway area that show a Fired missile on a weapon system with clear markings rushing back into Russia hours after the event and verbal evidence by others who expressed no love for the Ukranian Govt to support… Read more »