DISINFO: Ukraine guilty of downing MH17 flight
SUMMARY
Ukraine is guilty of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donbas in 2014.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets blaming Ukrainian troops for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donbas in July 2014 and aiming to discredit the criminal trial and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
In reality, there is enough evidence about Russia’s direct involvement in shooting down this plane. In September 2016, the JIT investigation announced that the plane was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by a BUK TELAR missile system. The system had been transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the town of Pervomaiskyi in the illegal separatist Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine, from where the missile was launched. After firing, the system, where one missile was missing, went back to Russia. In May 2018, the JIT announced its conclusion that the missile which shot down the plane came from Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. This unit is stationed in the city of Kursk.
Right after the downing, some separatist outlets and pro-Kremlin media in Russia issued reports about shooting down what they thought was a Ukrainian military plane. When it turned out that a civilian plane had been hit, these reports suddenly disappeared. However, they can still be found on the internet - see the entries via the Bellingcat investigation here.
Court hearings started in the Netherlands in March 2020, where three Russians and one Ukrainian were accused of shooting down the plane. Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko are being tried in absentia. They are specifically accused of transporting the Buk missile from Russia to Ukraine and moving it back after the shooting. The proceedings are still underway, but there is nothing that confirms Ukraine’s involvement. All facts point to Russia’s direct involvement.
Read more disinformation messages about the MH17 trial.