Detailed photos and videos prove that the missile that downed a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine nearly four years ago came from a Russian military base, a team of investigators said Thursday.
The Joint Investigation Team concluded that the BUK-TELAR missile that took down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 — killing all 298 aboard, including 23 Americans — came from the Russian military’s 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade in the city of Kursk.
The international team of investigators, based out of the Netherlands, went just short of saying who actually pulled the trigger, but their finding is the clearest link yet showing Russian involvement in the deadly strike.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the downing of the Boeing 777, putting the blame on Kiev and the Ukrainian pilot instead.
The passenger jet was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it was blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors said in 2016 that the plane was shot down by a BUK missile fired from territory controlled by Russia-backed rebels, using a launcher shipped in from Russian and hastily returned there afterward.
Thursday’s presentation of findings goes a step further: identifying the exact base involved, giving more details of the rocket and showing photo and video compilation from social media tracing the missile convoy’s journey into Ukraine.
“All the vehicles in a convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces,” Wilbert Paulissen, a senior investigator with the Dutch National Police, told the conference.
Investigators appealed for more witnesses to come forward with information about the missile.
In a written statement, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the Associated Press: “That a sophisticated weapon belonging to the Russian Army was dispatched and used to shoot down a civilian aircraft should be of grave international concern. We are discussing these findings with our partners and considering our options.”
Of the 298 people of more than 30 nationalities killed, 196 were Dutch, 42 Malaysian and 27 Australian.
Any suspects tied to the incident will be tried in the Netherlands.
With Post wires