MH17 Was Shot Down By A ‘Buk’ Ground-To-Air Missile, Russians Claim

A state-run Russian weapons manufacturer has claimed that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a BUK 9M28M1 surface-to-air missile.

In a press conference yesterday, during which they presented their analysis, the firm Almaz-Antey said the missile had been out of production in Russia since 1999, but could have been one of 991 they claim were held by the Ukrainian army at the time of the attack. Ukraine has denied these allegations.

It’s a hotly contested debate over who was responsible for destroying flight MH17 last July, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, including 27 Australian citizens.

Ukraine blamed the pro-Russian rebels, a hypothesis supported by Western investigators. Russia insisted it was the Ukrainian forces who fired the missile, although until this investigation, claimed it came from a Ukrainian fighter jet

No one is admitting to have controlled the Zaroschenske area – where the plane was brought down – at the time, either. The Russians say the Ukrainian military, the Ukrainians say the rebels. The crash site has been called “the most contaminated crime scene in the world.”

Almaz-Antey’s analysis of pieces of recovered MH17 wreckage says that a distinctive ‘double T’ shape to the damage pointed them towards an air defence missile, and that it “could be only Buk-M1 and this type of missile,” said chief engineer Mikhail Malisevskiy.

The presentation also showed that the missile exploded 3-4 meters away from the plane, near the left hand side of the cockpit.

Netherland’s own investigation is still ongoing, but their “leading scenario” is that the plane was hit by a Russian-made BUK.

Image: Fred Neeleman via Getty Images

Via Reuters / BBC

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