The Buk missile launcher that shot down Malaisiya Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine more than two years ago, killing 298 people, came from Russia and was transported back there, Dutch prosecutors said as they released the results of a criminal probe into the tragedy on Sept. 28.
However, the prospects of the perpetrators soon being held to account for shooting down the airliner looked bleak, even as the Dutch criminal investigation into the tragedy released its interim findings – findings that strongly indicate that Russian-backed separatists, and ultimately the Kremlin itself, were to blame for downing the airliner.
Dutch investigators pinpointed the launch site of the Buk missile to a field south of Snizhne, deep in separatist-controlled territory in the Donbas. They also positively identified the weapon used as a Buk 9M38 missile, and dismissed claims that MH17 had been shot down by a Ukrainian warplane.
But crucially, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team, the group conducting the criminal investigation, did not name any suspects in connection with the shoot down, although it said it had enough information to reach a conclusion in its criminal investigation.
The investigators said they had analyzed 35,000 intercepted phone conversations between separatist fighters, and that the Buk had been mentioned in some of them. They said around 100 persons linked to the case had been identified. They said the persons had been active in transporting the Buk launcher, but that more information about the chain of command responsible for moving the Buk was needed before formal suspects in the case could be named.
The JIT also said it would not release all of the information it has as “this might jeopardize the investigation, and play into the hands of the perpetrators.”
The JIT team consists of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, and Belgium, working in cooperation with Ukraine.
Launch site
The probable missile launch site has long been known, having been identified independently shortly after the shoot down by analytical blogger @DajeyPetros and citizen journalist outfit Bellingcat. The site was then visited within days by journalists Roland Oliphant of the UK’s Telegraph newspaper and Christopher Miller, who formerly worked for the Kyiv Post. Oliphant and Miller noted at the site track marks and burn damage to crops consistent with the presence of a Buk unit and the launch of one of its missiles.
A photograph of a smoke trail believed to have been left by the Buk missile, analyzed by @DajeyPetros, also indicated the same launch site.
A BUK missile was identified as the weapon that brought down MH17 by an earlier investigation into the tragedy carried out by the Dutch Safety Board, which released its findings in mid-October 2015.
Obstruction
Russia has obstructed both investigations, by the safety board and by prosecutors, at every turn, withholding key radar data and allegedly fabricating evidence to deflect blame for the tragedy onto Ukraine. Russia also vetoed an attempt at the United Nations in July 2015 to set up an international tribunal to investigate the shooting down of MH17.
And in an apparent effort to undermine the JIT investigation ahead of the release of its interim findings, Russia’s Ministry of Defense held a briefing on Sept. 26 at which it presented newly uncovered radar data that it said showed Ukraine was responsible for the shoot down.
According to the Russians, their previously misplaced radar data show that the Buk missile could not have been fired from separatist-held territory – flatly contradicting the JIT’s newly released findings.
However, the new data from the Russian Ministry of Defense also indicated that no other aircraft was in the vicinity of MH17 when it was downed – scotching an earlier Russian claim, widely touted by Kremlin-controlled media, that a Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack aircraft had shot the airliner down.
And the new data also contradicted another earlier Russian claim that MH17 had deviated from its flight path just before the tragedy occurred.
Fake evidence
Earlier, Bellingcat and the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey analyzed satellite imagery released by the Russian Defense Ministry shortly after the shooting down of MH17 on July 17, 2014, which they said indicated the imagery had been manipulated.
In a report, Bellingcat said the satellite imagery presented by the Russian Defense Ministry on July 21, 2014 was “a clear attempt to present fake evidence to the world in the case of MH17.”
Bellingcat has also given the findings of its own investigation into the MH17 tragedy to the JIT. According to the findings, the Buk unit that is thought to have shot down MH17 originated from Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade, based in Kursk. Bellingcat uncovered the movements of the Buk unit by searching through social media posts by the public in Russia and Ukraine, and by Russian servicemen.
The Bellingcat investigators were able to track the unit as it was moved from Kursk, down through southern Russia, and across the border into Ukraine. The unit was photographed and videoed moving through separatist-controlled territory to the area of Snizhne ahead of the shooting down of MH17. The Associated Press reported on July 17, hours before MH17 was shot down, that one of its reporters had seen a Buk unit parked alongside several tanks at a gas station in Snizhne. The unit was next spotted on the day after the tragedy in Luhansk, heading east towards the Russian border on a low-loader, with one of its missiles apparently missing.
The JIT investigation agreed with Bellingcat’s findings.
Bellingcat has given the JIT the names of around 100 Russian servicemen it says may have been involved in transporting the Buk unit to Ukraine and shooting down MH17.
