DISINFO: The IL-76, like MH17 in 2014, was shot down as a Ukrainian military provocation
SUMMARY
Following the downing of the IL-76, it was recalled that the Ukrainian military also shot down a Malaysian Boeing on flight MH17 in 2014 as a provocation.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim taking advantage of the downing of IL-76 to revive a well known disinformation narrative, the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine. The claim portrays Russia as victim of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The downing of the military aircraft Ilyushin-76 (IL-76) and its circumstances are still under investigation. What is known is that the IL-76 came down in the Korocha district of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast on 24 January 2024. The Russian Ministry of Defence quickly blamed Ukraine for the downing of the plane, claiming that Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board. However, neither the allegations of Ukrainian responsibility nor the claims of Ukrainian prisoners being on the aircraft have been substantiated by facts.
Various explanations for the downing of the aircraft are currently being considered, as the actual circumstances still require further investigation and clarification. Despite the uncertainty of the facts, Russian media did not hesitate to draw direct comparisons with the downing of MH17 in 2014, an incident demonstrably carried out by Russian troops.
Concerning the downing of the Malaysian airliner MH17 in July 2014, open-source materials enabled an investigation by Bellingcat, which concluded that
On July 17, 2014 a Buk missile launcher, originating from the 53rd Brigade near Kursk, Russia, travelled from Donetsk to Snizhne [in territory under Russian military control]. It was then unloaded and drove under its own power to a field south of Snizhne, where at approximately 4:20 pm it, launched a surface-to-air missile that hit Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew over Ukraine. On the morning of July 18, the Buk missile launcher was driven from Luhansk, Ukraine, across the border to Russia.
Alternative scenarios presented by the Russian Ministry of Defense and Almaz-Antey [the Russian missile manufacturer] are at best deeply flawed, and at worst show a deliberate attempt to mislead using fabricated evidence.
A trial using the work of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) took place in The Hague. Igor Girkin (Russian Ministery of Defence staff and commander of the armed forces of the separatist "Donetsk Peoples Republic" (DPR)), Sergey Dubinskiy (commanding officer) and Leonid Kharchenko (commander) were found guilty of 298 accounts of murder and "unlawfully causing an airplane to crash" and sentenced to life imprisonment. All were tried in absentia.
The Kremlin ecosystem has tried to spin the downing of MH17 in several ways - see our overview here.
Read also MH17-related cases such as: MH17 court decision is absurd: Ukraine shot down the plane on purpose; Kyiv and the West shot down flight MH17 in attempt to kill Putin or discredit Russia; Dutch court ruling on the downing of MH17 is timed as a distraction.