A Russian missile fired from a Russian launcher in territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine in 2014 brought down flight Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 civilians, a new international investigative report has revealed.
But the new report still doesn’t say who gave the order to fire the missile and who in fact fired it.
“Now that we have established what happened, the investigation now focuses on the perpetrators. This will be a matter for the long haul,” said the report, which was unveiled Wednesday at a news conference in the Netherlands.
Russian officials have denied any involvement in downing the plane since the July 17, 2014, incident.
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The report adds to what has become an ever lengthening list of evidence pointing to Russia, saying that a Buk missile launcher had been brought into Ukraine from Russia just hours before the tragedy and was taken back into Russia shortly after. It pinpointed the location from which the missile was fired – an area controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
Last year, another international investigation found that the missile that exploded just feet from the cockpit of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet was Russian.
Wilbert Paulissen, chief of the Dutch investigative force, summarized the evidence collected by the multi-national Joint Investigative Team, which was directed by the Netherlands, whose nationals made up the largest group of the victims of the shoot-down.
“The missile was shot down by a Buk,” he said, referring to a surface-to-air missile system. “This Buk was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation, and after launch was subsequently returned to Russian Federation territory.”
“The final destination of the BUK-system was on farmland near Pervomaiskyi.” the report said, a reference to land that in 2014 was controlled by Russian separatist fighters.
The next job is determining who ordered the missile’s launch. That may be a daunting task.
The investigation has identified about 100 people “who can be linked to the downing of MH17 or the transport of the BUK” through witnesses, intercepted telephone conversations and other investigative means, the report said.
Going forward, investigators will be looking to see if there is a chain of command behind the unprovoked attack.
“Who gave the order to bring the BUK-TELAR into Ukraine and who gave the order to shoot down Flight MH17?” the reports asks. “Did the crew decide for themselves or did they execute a command from their superiors? This is important when determining the offenses committed by the alleged perpetrators.”
Disturbingly, the report notes that while the investigation indicates the three people in the cockpit were killed instantly by the exploding missile, there was no way to know if the 295 passengers were alive during the 90-second plummet to Earth.
The report indicates the investigation team “is convinced of having obtained irrefutable evidence to establish that on 17 July 2014, flight MH-17 was shot down by a BUK missile from the 9M38-series. According to the JIT there is also evidence identifying the launch location that involves an agricultural field near Pervomaiskyi which, at the time, was controlled by pro-Russian fighters.”
The investigators come from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
The report also notes that while investigators pursued “alternative scenarios, an accident and evidence for a terrorist attack from inside the aircraft have been ruled out.”
Matthew Schofield: @mattschodcnews