Ukrainian warplane shot down Malaysian Flight MH17: Purported witnesses

Malaysian Flight MH17, which went down in eastern Ukraine some two years ago, was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet, not a ground-to-air missile, people claiming to have witnessed the incident say.

A BBC documentary titled “The Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17?” which will be aired on May 3, includes interviews with people who claim to have seen the aircraft being shot down by a Ukrainian warplane.

German investigative journalist Billy Six talked to 100 eyewitnesses, seven of whom said they saw a warplane.

“One of them even told me how he saw it launch a missile. It was like a small line in the sky going into the clouds. Then he heard the big boom,” Six said.

Another eyewitness, Natasha Beronina, said, “It was summer, harvest time. We heard a bang. At first we saw black smoke and two planes. … One flew straight on and the other one turned round when the bang happened and flew back from where it had come.”

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

Almost two years into the incident, the circumstances under which it happened remain undetermined.

Ukraine and Western powers have been accusing Moscow of having been involved in the downing of the plane, arguing that it was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from the town of Snizhne, which is controlled by pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement in the deadly incident.

Following the disaster, Russian media reported the name of a pilot they said was responsible for shooting the plane down, identifying him as Captain Vladislav Voloshin and saying that he is based at a southern Ukraine airfield. Voloshin, however, has denied the allegation.

‘CIA-backed operation’

The BBC documentary also explores another hypothesis: that the shooting down of the jet was a CIA plot that sought to pin blame on Russia.

Private investigator Sergey Sokolov deployed more than 100 of his agents to investigate the site of the crash and examine evidence. He said they found no shrapnel from a Russian missile, adding that he was “sold” a phone intercept between two CIA agents that implies they masterminded to plan two bombs on the plane.

“The driving force of the operation were CIA agents and the Dutch security service also had a part to play as the bombs were put on the plane in Holland and this couldn’t have been done anywhere else,” Sokolov said.

“This terrorist act was a pretext for firstly intensifying sanctions on Russia, secondly to show the world that Russia is a barbarian country and thirdly to strengthen the presence of NATO in Europe, particularly Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine’s eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to crush pro-Moscow protests there.

The crisis has left around 9,200 people dead and over 21,000 others injured, according to the United Nations.

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