Ukraine behind MH17 flight downing: Russia missile maker

A Russian missile maker has hinted that the Ukrainian government was involved in the downing of Malaysian Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine last year.

Mikhail Malyshevsky, with a Russian firm manufacturing the Buk air defense missile system, said in Moscow on Tuesday that damage done to the plane showed the impact of an old Buk-M1 system, which is still held in Ukraine’s arsenal.

Malyshevsky, who advises the director general of the Almaz-Antei consortium, which produces Buk missile systems, said his analysis is based on photographs taken from the plane wreckage previously made available to public.

Almaz-Antei’s Director Yan Novikov said the model of the Buk missile that he thinks was used against Flight MH17 is no longer in service by the Russian military but still exists in Ukraine’s arsenals.

He said the missile came from the rural settlement of Zaroshchenske, which is controlled by the Ukrainian government.

Flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014 over Ukraine’s volatile Donetsk region while en route from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 passengers and crew on board were killed. The crash occurred under unknown circumstances.

Ukraine and Western powers have been accusing Moscow of being involved in the downing of the plane, arguing that it was shot down from the town of Snizhne, which is controlled by pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has denied any involvement in the deadly incident. Some witnesses said they had seen the aircraft being attacked by a Ukrainian army plane.

Tensions initially erupted in eastern Ukraine after pro-Russia protests, which broke out in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk last April, were met with heavy crackdown by Kiev.

SZH/KA/HJL

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