MH17 report identifies Russian soldiers suspected of downing plane in Ukraine

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

A British-led online investigative team says it has identified Russian soldiers linked to a surface-to-air missile suspected of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014.

The Bellingcat report paints a picture of up to 100 Russian soldiers and officers who it says could have known about or been involved in the plane’s downing on 17 July 2014, at the height of the conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists. All 298 people on board died in the crash.

Drawing on open source data such as soldiers’ social network photos, an online forum for soldiers’ relatives and Google Earth satellite imagery, the report expands on previous Bellingcat findings to argue that a Buk missile belonging to the 2nd battalion of Russia’s 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade likely shot down the Boeing 777.

The head of the MH17 investigation, Fred Westerbeke, told victims’ families in a letter last week that finding and prosecuting those responsible “could take a long time”. But the new report raises the likelihood that “justice could be served”, Bellingcat head Eliot Higgins told the Guardian. Although names were changed and faces blurred in the public report, the identities were provided in a version given to Dutch prosecutors in December.


Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/24/mh17-report-identifies-russian-soldiers-suspected-of-downing-plane-in-ukraine

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It identifies a number of soldiers only by their first names and initials, saying also that the 2nd Battalion commander was Dmitry T.

However, it gives the full name of the brigade's overall chief, identifying him as Sergey Muchkayev.

The report says that "the decision to send military equipment to the Russia-Ukraine border and to Ukraine was made at an even higher level - the level of the ministry of defence of Russia".

"Consistent with the probable conclusion that the Russian Buk missile launcher... downed MH17, the ministry of defence (of Russia) bears the main responsibility... shared with the military commanders and leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics", the document adds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35654692

[underpants]

1. Where are all the RT posts now?

I applied the duck rule to this and it has held true.

[JackRiddler]

2. "up to 100" "could have known about or been involved"

"suspected of downing"

"the probable conclusion"

"paints a picture"

Totally definitive. Putin pulled the trigger!

[Bad Dog]

3. Finding those resposible will take one hell of a long time.

Not while Putin's president. Litvinenko's murderer is living the life of Riley in Russia, and I'm sure these terrorists are doing the same.

[flamin lib]

4. It was an accident . . .

They were just cleaning their missile launcher and it went off . . .

[yourpaljoey]

7. Good points. As always, I ask myself : who benefits?

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Because they mistook it for a Ukrainian military transport

and they made that claim that day, before they realised what they'd shot down:

Donetsk People’s Republic militia downs another Ukraine’s An-26 plane — eyewitnesses

DONETSK, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Militiamen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) brought down a military transport Antonov-26 (An-26) plane of the Ukrainian Air Force on the outskirts of the town of Torez, eyewitnesses said.
A missile hit the An-26, it fell on the ground and caught blaze, they said.

On July 14, militiamen of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic downed another An-26 of the Ukrainian Air Force.

More:
http://tass.ru/en/world/741164

Torez is where MH17 was shot down. No An-26 was shot down that day. It's all been pretty simple - they had new access to a weapons system that could bring down planes at altitude, and they used it on a foreign airliner by mistake, rather than the Ukrainian military plane they thought they were aiming at.

[Little Tich]

9. Putin will have to pay for this eventually, just like Gaddafi had to. n/t

[reorg]

10. 'Bellingcat'

uhuh