Russia's Military Tells A Very Different Story About What Happened To MH17

By MICHAEL B KELLEY AND BRETT LOGIURATO


Russia is taking a different line than most of the world regarding the Malaysia passenger plane that was shot down on Thursday.

Ukraine and the West have presented a mountain of evidence indicating that pro-Russian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 with a Russian-supplied BUK missile system. 

In a statement on Monday, Russia's ministry of defense began laying the case for blame on the West.

It claims it saw MH17 detour from its route at the same time a Ukrainian warplane flew overhead and a U.S. satellite flew over Ukraine. And it said Ukraine had four SA-11 BUK missile systems on the ground in separatist territory.

The ministry claimed that Russia not delivered deliver any SA-11 BUK missile systems to separatists in Ukraine, "or any other weapons."

The U.S., on the other hand, asserts that it has "detected an increasing amount of heavy weaponry to separatist fighters crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine" in addition to gathering "information indicating that Russia is providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in southwest Russia, and this effort included training on air defense systems."

Russia's defense ministry also said the military has not detected the launch of any missiles near MH17's flight path, and asked the U.S. to share images "if they have them."

The Russians also demanded an explanation from Ukraine's government, saying a Ukrainian warplane flew within 2-3 miles of MH17. It somewhat pointed the finger at Kiev, saying that Ukraine had surface-to-air missiles near separatist-controlled areas at the time of the crash.

In a late-night statement issued Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged other countries who have pointed the finger at Russia to not "use the tragedy to pursue their own political goals." He also repeated his blame of Ukraine, saying the tragedy could have been avoided if Ukraine's military had not increased the scope of operations against pro-Russian separatists in late June.

The Russian military took accusations a bit further Monday, also hinting at some strange speculations. The spokesman asked: "Is it a coincidence that the time of the MH17 crash is the same as a U.S. satellite flew over Ukraine?" 

On July 17, Malaysia Flight MH17 went down in the town of Torez, which located in separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

Russia immediately held Ukraine's government responsible, while evidence mounted that Russian separatists mistook the civilian passenger plane for a Ukrainian military aircraft.

The West has so far said that pro-Russian separatists are to blame for both shooting down the plane and for subsequently disrupting the international investigation. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry went on all five Sunday-morning talk shows and laid out the evidence in a prosecutorial style.

Kerry said Ukraine did not have a missile system in the vicinity of the crash.

The U.S. State Department has pointed the finger at Moscow for weeks for meddling in Ukraine, citing a major flow of weapons from Russia to southeastern Ukraine over the past month, including "150 vehicles with armed personnel carrier, multiple rocket launchers, tanks, artillery."

"We also know to a certainty that the social media immediately afterwards saw reports of separatists bragging about knocking down a plane, and then the so-called defense minister, self-appointed of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, Igor Strelkov, posted a social media report bragging about the shoot-down of a transport plane – at which point when it became clear it was civilian, they pulled down that particular report," Kerry said.

REUTERS

SEE ALSO:  'Russia Risks Becoming A Pariah State'

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-story-about-mh17-2014-7#ixzz387A8lhTZ

The evidence

THE circumstantial evidence for what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and to the 298 people on board is already powerful. But there are still many unresolved questions, the answer to which will have a major bearing on what happens next. There is little or no doubt that the aircraft, which was flying above eastern Ukraine at 33,000 feet, was shot down by a Russian-designed surface-to-air missile, almost certainly a Buk missile (known as the SA-17 in the West) or just possibly a more powerful S-300 (designated SA-10 by NATO).

Both systems are in use by Russian and Ukrainian forces. It appears that the missile was launched from Chernukhino, near Snezhnoye, about 80km from Donetsk, in territory controlled by Russian separatists and about 20km from the main crash site. That is easily within the range of even the earliest Buk systems which were developed in the 1970s by the Soviet Union.

Early on July 17th, several hours before MH17 was destroyed, journalists from the Associated Press reported seeing a launcher near Snezhnoye that they said looked like a Buk system. Igor Sutyagin, a Russian expert at RUSI, a London-based think-tank, says that four hours before news of the shooting down spread, reports were coming in from social media of sightings of the launcher near what became the crash site. Previously, there had been reports about separatist rebels boasting of having captured Buk missiles from a Ukrainian army base near Donetsk. The reports first surfaced on June 29th and were mainly carried by Russian state news agencies. According to sources, the story first ran on TV Zvezda, the news agency of the Russian defence ministry. A major question is whether the missile system was really stolen or whether the story was planted to provide cover for the Russians providing the rebels surreptitiously with advanced weaponry.

A further question is whether the rebels would have had the technical capability of operating the system without Russian military help. The answer is that a properly trained crew would normally be needed, but that a partially trained crew might be able to work it without fully realising what they were doing. That seems the most likely explanation for what happened. On July 14th a Ukrainian military cargo plane, an Antonov-26, with eight people on board was brought down over the village of Davydo Myilske in the Luhansk region, a few miles from the Russian border. The aircraft was flying at 21,000 feet, well beyond the altitude range of shoulder-fired missiles, such as the Strela, used by the rebels to shoot down planes before. It seems that the people responsible for the destruction of MH17 thought they were taking out another military plane and not a civilian airliner.

Last night Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, released audio from what appeared to be intercepted phone calls between rebels and a Russian intelligence official. In one call, a separatist leader, Igor Bezler, says that they “have just shot down a plane”. In a later call, apparently from the crash site, another man says that Cossack militiamen have shot the plane down and that it was a passenger airliner. When asked if there are any signs of military equipment among the wreckage, he replies “absolutely nothing”.

It all suggests a tragic mistake made by reckless incompetents who may or may not have been receiving direct help from Russian handlers, who may or may not have been operating with official approval. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, after a call yesterday with Barack Obama that began before news of the shooting down had broken, has already tried to shift responsibility for the crime to the renewed offensive in the east by Ukrainian forces ordered by President Petro Poroshenko to regain control of territory ceded to the rebels. Some Russian commentators have even tried to pin the blame on the Ukrainian armed forces—an incredible charge because the Ukrainians have had no need to use air defence systems against an enemy that has no aircraft. 

In the hours and days ahead, as more information about exactly what happened emerges, the great question will be what part, if any, Russia played in the tragedy of Flight MH17.

“This is not a disaster. It is Hell”

THE field is filled with bodies. One has on jeans, but no shoes. A second is in a polo shirt and grey socks, one of which is charred. A third wears blue trousers, but your correspondent cannot see the face, smashed as it is under the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Eastern Ukraine has been at war for nearly three months. At first the violence came at a slow drip that few thought could turn into a torrent. Now 298 people—283 passengers and 15 crew—have died in an instant, their deaths seemingly the work of a sophisticated surface-to-air missile.

Passengers onboard Flight 17 had made themselves comfortable for the long journey from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. One, in black leggings, now rests next to a black duffle bag, which is somehow intact. A green luggage strap lies in the grass like a snake. Someone comments on the smell: acrid, heavy. Only death smells this way.

“We thought that they were bombing us,” says Natalia, from the nearby village of Grabovo, referring to the Ukrainian forces who skirmish almost daily with pro-Russian separatists in surrounding towns. The passengers fell, one fighter stationed here says, “from incredible heights”. As they came down, many were “undressed by the air”. One victim somehow kept his black shirt on, but lost half of his face. A can of Gillette shaving cream is wedged under his back. Nearby lie the makings of a holiday: an Avis rent-a-car receipt, a postcard, a toiletry kit with face-wash and a blue and white toothbrush. A pair of chocolate bars with macadamia nuts lie in the grass.

The rescue workers mark the bodies' locations with bits of white cloth tied to stakes. These men do what they can to find all of the corpses, but the space is vast and the light is short. The only buildings in the area are a chicken factory on one edge of the field, and a stretch of small country homes that begin on the other edge, not far from the smouldering wreckage around the plane’s engine. The firefighters try to extinguish the blaze, but it takes a while—their hose has holes and spews water like little geysers. They were not ready for this. “Nothing has happened here for 30 years,” says one rebel, a local man who goes by the nickname “Tuna”.

A dead boy of about ten years old lies with his face frozen in fear. He has one shoe left on, and patterned socks. He is still strapped to his mangled blue chair, the belt tight across his lap.

It begins to rain, but only lightly. The mosquitos emerge, and the dogs too, barking in the distance. Clusters of rebel fighters grow thicker along the roads. They are in shock. “This is not a disaster,” says a local commander called Aleksey, “it is Hell.” The orange glow of ordnance flickers over a hillside on the horizon.

Dig deeper:
Flight MH17: the search for evidence