The Ukrainian Buk, which shot down the Malaysian Boeing MH17, drove through Khreshchatyk. Whose Buk shot down the Boeing? The Russian version fell apart at the speed of light How to understand this

Petro Poroshenko is again at the center of a scandal. The BBC reported that the Ukrainian president paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to meet with Donald Trump. Those negotiations lasted a matter of minutes. In fact, it was just a photo shoot. But it will become more difficult for Ukrainians to find out the truth about the activities of their president. The Kyiv authorities blocked their access to the websites of leading Russian media. Dozens of domains are included in the list of prohibited resources. Including the website of our TV channel, the news portal Vesti.Ru and other resources of VGTRK. Russian journalists described this measure as a purge before the presidential election.

This latest massive anti-Russian hysteria by the Ukrainian leader received support in Holland today. So-called independent investigators have again found Russian traces in the death of a Malaysian Boeing over Donbass.

The new statement by Dutch investigators cannot even be called a version. Because it completely contradicts the picture of what happened. Even now, the Dutch in their report do not indicate the place from where, according to their assumption, the Buk fired. They are simply trying to pull Russia in head-on.

“Not a single anti-aircraft missile system of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation has ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border. Moreover, all continuous primary (raw) data received from the Utes-T track radar complex, which on July 17, 2014, was transferred to the international investigative group I worked while in the Rostov region, near the village of Ust-Donetsky."

The Utes radar, data from which destroyed the international version of the investigation back in the fall of 2016, is capable of seeing everything in the air, down to the smallest objects, at a distance of up to 360 kilometers. It is 200 kilometers from here to Grabovo. And, of course, he saw the large-body Boeing perfectly well. As well as the fact that from the eastern side, where the militia were located, no missiles approached the Boeing.”

“At the time of the crash of the Boeing, deployed units of the Ukrainian air defense were recorded, which the next day after the disaster left the area where it occurred,” said Igor Korotchenko, a military expert.

But there is plenty of evidence that that fatal launch was made from the outskirts of Zaroshchensky, where Ukrainian troops were stationed on July 17, 2014. Objective data. Here are the firing positions on the outskirts of Shakhtersk. Here, a little deeper in the rear, are the launching positions for the Buk missiles. All this was recorded by our military satellites. And even a few days before the disaster, Ukrainian TV channels joyfully reported that they had anti-aircraft missile systems guarding the sky. And this once again confirms that Ukraine had Buks, including in the Zaroshchenskoye area.

“Remember July 17. “It was even impossible to get here, they stupidly didn’t let us through anywhere. There were dill in this area. This was approximately their location, their car and radars were visible,” said an eyewitness.

The Almaz-Antey concern, which produces the Buk air defense system, conducted three experiments - they simulated a missile hitting the airliner, taking into account the damage identified on the Boeing hull. And, according to experts, the missile was most likely launched from the Zaroshchenskoye area. A former Ukrainian Armed Forces officer told Vesti about this two years ago.

“There are contract soldiers like that (knocks on wood). You walk with them in the evening and talk: “Guys, what, how, who were they transporting?” Where were they, what did they see, what did they hear?" "Yes, that's where the Buk was transported." "Where was it transported?" - "They were transported there." - "Oh, interesting!" said Yuriy Baturin, in 2014 - chief command post of military unit No. 1215 of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

And judging by the traces from the destructive elements, the Boeing was hit by an outdated modification of the Buk, which we have long removed from service. Moreover, Ukraine tried to cover up its traces of involvement.

“Let me remind you that the Dnepropetrovsk air traffic controllers suddenly disappeared somewhere and have not yet appeared, who changed, on unknown instructions, the initial flight of the Boeing along the agreed route, directing it actually through the area where the Ukrainian ones were deployed at the time of the disaster.” Buki,” Korotchenko emphasized.

“If an international investigative team is truly interested in identifying the true culprits of the crash of passenger flight MH-17 in the skies of Ukraine, its representatives should base their statements, first of all, on facts and testimony, and not on the creations of fake generators from Bellingcat or the SBU,” it says in a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

But there is also data from US satellite intelligence, which, as you know, sees everything. For some reason they have not yet been published. This can only mean one thing. Washington has 100 percent evidence that Ukraine is behind this disaster.

First of all, I should probably apologize to the Russian Ministry of Defense for saying just now that under the guise of proving the Ukrainian origin of that fatal Bukov missile, they concocted some kind of bullshit. Because they seem to have presented a log of acceptance and shipment from the Dolgoprudny rocket plant, but just the columns with product 8720 (the serial number of the assembled rocket with the engine and nozzle found at the scene of the incident) - nothing is visible. And his dog knows what is really there, but there is no hint that there is a Ukrainian delivery address (military unit 20152), and not “ditto” (other missiles in that series were sent to the Rybinsk Arsenal).

Honestly, I was wrong. No, here the complaints may not be against the Ministry of Defense, but only specifically against Vesti24, which in their releases keep these stupid information boards at the bottom, and at those moments of the briefing recording where a photo of the missile log book appeared - these boards covered exactly that very interesting line (the photo appears for the first time at 7:39, and then again a couple of minutes later).

And, since at that time I only watched the Vesti report, which was also referred to by the “Watosphere” as a “decisive exposure of crests” - well, I was a little freaked out. I thought: “What the hell is this? You want to sell information that this particular missile went to the Ukrainian SSR - and close the corresponding line. What the hell kind of cheating is this?”

Well, it’s the same as when a travel agency sells you a room with a gorgeous view of the sea, shows you photos - and the windows are curtained.

But it turned out that this was only a joint of Vesti. In other reports from that briefing (in particular, in Vremya on ORT), the photo of the magazine is shown so that the line with that particular missile is visible. And yes, indeed, it is indicated there that the product with number 8720 is intended for military unit 20152 (at that time - the 223rd SA anti-aircraft missile brigade, later - the 223rd regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces). At least that's what it says in the picture. And the authenticity of it, and the journal, and the absence of later edits - this can only be established by an examination. But the picture in the original is shown in full, and only Vesti24, due to some exceptional crookedness and cross-eyedness (not in the racial sense) of its employees, managed to distort it and hide the most important thing.

Therefore, I apologize to the Russian Ministry of Defense. And I have to admit that they are the ones who fight badly, and sometimes they shoot pictures of very high quality.

And at the same time, I offer them my condolences. By God, this is some kind of evil, mocking rock. Yesterday they went out of their way to prove that they (or their proxies) cannot shoot down an erroneous target with an air defense system - and today Russian (or Syrian) air defense destroyed the Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft.

Jokes aside (Ukrainians, of course, gloat to the fullest, and one can understand them), but in reality it’s sad. Fifteen people, most of whom were probably good people. War is generally a matter where, predominantly, some good people kill other good people. Therefore, of course, only freaks and ghouls start wars without any absolutely extreme necessity. But, unfortunately, “freaks and ghouls” is precisely the characteristic that suits the military-political leadership of Muscovy throughout the vast majority of its five-hundred-year history, with rare moments of enlightenment.

Let's return, however, to Buk and Boeing (and the briefing).

I'll be very frank. The newly emerging details related to this missile and the incident as a whole are valuable for the investigation, but in reality they are of little significance. For, to be fair, from the very first report that a civilian airliner was shot down over Donbass, it was extremely clear who did it. Of course, those who have previously shot down Ukrainian combat and military transport aircraft there.

Only earlier they shot down relatively low-altitude (within five kilometers) targets accessible to MANPADS, however, there was an escalation of the air defense systems of the rebels (and Russian “vacationers”, of course). So, at the end of June, an An-30 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Slavyansk at more than six kilometers. From a MANPADS at such a height, only the Russian Verba, which was never supplied to Ukraine, could reach it. That is, already at that time they openly hammered home the appearance that Russia was not supplying the separatists with weapons, as if they had gotten everything themselves from Ukrainian warehouses.

It was a matter of time when more powerful air defense systems, like the Buk, would appear and start firing. And they appeared. And the separatists boasted very much that they now have Buk. Well, they applied it. Who exactly controlled the installation, either professional Russian anti-aircraft gunners, or local ones with similar army experience - these are just details. But that the rocket was launched by the “knights of the Russian world”, it was them, the separatist side - this was and remains a completely unambiguous fact all the way. It can be denied either by the weak-minded or by psychopaths mired in conspiracy delirium. Well, or clowns, pretending to be either fools or psychos.

Well, no matter how you treat these “knights of the Russian world” (I personally, being Russian, treat them very badly precisely because these fucking idiots are setting us all up, making us see every Russian as an asshole like them), but in this case, they most likely believed that they were working for a “legal” purpose. That is, for a Ukrainian combat or military transport aircraft. What they did many times before - and for them they were “the bloody vultures of the Kyiv Junta.” But this time, they simply made a mistake in identifying the target and hit a peaceful Malaysian airliner, which made them sick.

Could they have intentionally fired a missile at a passenger airliner, realizing the non-military nature of the target? Well, I want to hope not.

That is, it is clear that among these “knights of the Russian world” there are also simply maniacs, completely fucked, who generally don’t give a damn who they kill for the sake of some dark goals of their own or simply out of love for Mochilov. Fortunately, however, fewer and fewer of these are trampling the planet, every month: they are extinguished in the Donbass, and extinguished in Russia.

But for the Buk crew to be a bunch of maniacs who will deliberately crash a civilian plane with three hundred passengers? I would like to think better about both the current Russian anti-missile gunners and the previously serving Donbass ones.

After all, these are techies from whom a certain level of intelligence and mental normality is required. At least this way - so that people don’t suddenly start shooting rockets into the sky in vain, having had a fight with a girl or something like that. And with a certain level of intelligence, a person must understand that if they tell him: “Press the button, shoot down a civilian airliner,” then, most likely, they will then be liquidated.

Therefore, the most plausible version is that in any case it was a mistake, and not the deliberate destruction of a civilian airliner with a bunch of innocent passengers, including children.

But on whose side is such a mistake likely?

From the side of the “separatists” (and Russian assistants) - more than likely. Yes, they shot down Ukrainian military planes before, and even now they thought that they were hitting a “legal”, military target. And in this case, it’s enough to simply give the missilemen information that another transport or reconnaissance aircraft is flying, they will aim at it and shoot.

And on the part of the Ukrainians - what should they say to the Buk crew? How can I explain to them why they should launch a rocket into the sky at all? About whom?

In connection with the Malaysian Boeing, cotton wool often recalls the incident under Kuchma at the beginning of the 2000s, when during joint Russian-Ukrainian exercises in Crimea, a Ukrainian (probably) missile accidentally shot down a Russian “carcass” with passengers from Israel.

But there were exercises there. Shooting was carried out at targets. Nothing else was intended by those who pressed the buttons. It’s just a tragic coincidence that instead of a target, the missile hit a civilian plane (and, one must think, it was still the idiocy of those who planned the exercises like this, that the airliner, in principle, came under attack).

And during the ATO and within the reach of the Buk (that’s 25 kilometers to a target at ten kilometers altitude) - how could one explain to the Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners why the hell and who they are shooting at?

Exercises are not conducted in such proximity to the ATO zone. The enemy has no planes. So who should we shoot at?

Okay, okay, let’s say that a certain Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile unit received an urgent message that for some reason a plane with Putin on board, Russia-1, had landed in these parts. Take him down and the war will end.

Yes, the temptation would be great. And don’t care about collateral damage: the pilots, the flight attendants, and everyone who is close to Putin on board know what they are doing when they approach his person.

But then it turns out that it was all a hoax, that they actually crashed an innocent passenger liner. And what - the direct participants will remain silent? Or will they be crushed by the Right Sector, and the right-wingers will be killed by the National Guard, and those by the SBU, and those will be shot by Poroshenko personally?

Well, that's nonsense.

How else can you force Ukrainian missilemen, who are close to the front line, to hit a plane in the sky? To say that this is a Russian bomber that is carrying a thermonuclear bomb to Kyiv? So he is moving away, flying from West to East.

In general, if you use common sense and at least take the human factor into account, then the version that the Ukrainian side shot down the Boeing looks like absolute nonsense. Suitable only for lovers of all kinds of conspiracy nonsense about false flag operations everywhere (and in this case, it is completely unclear what benefits Ukraine or at least some influential groups in it received from this incident).

It will be possible to believe in the involvement of Ukrainians in the missile launch only when they present certificates of insanity for the entire command chain from Poroshenko to the Buk team. For the oversight of Boeing’s defeat is excluded for the Ukrainian side, and intentionality implies insanity.

Meanwhile, the pro-Russian side, from the very beginning and all the way, had what is called the benefit of the doubt. That is, there is a reasonable doubt that they were aware of the true nature of the target, did not understand that it was civilian, and struck, considering it military.

And it is a recognized fact that the Boeing was shot down precisely from the pro-Russian side. Even if it has not yet been fully proven, it is absolutely recognized, because it is simply impossible in one’s right mind to imagine that this could have been done by anyone else except the separatists who made a mistake in their goal (or the Russian warriors they “removed” at Buk).

Well, it was confirmed a long time ago that the launch was carried out from territory controlled by the separatists, there is a video with a trail from there (and, by the way, how would you imagine the actions of alleged maniacs from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, shooting down a Boeing from their territory, but at the same time teeming with citizens sympathizing with the “DPR” ”, who will definitely film that launch?)

By denying this generally accepted fact, Russia and the Moscow Region are deprived of the “benefit of doubt” that the tragedy was the result of a mistake.

Finding out the path of that rocket and its elements from the factory to the military unit in the Ukrainian SSR does not give anything.

Because the Union collapsed, there was still a mess everywhere (and it continues, in the RA, in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in any other post-Soviet army... and in any regular army in general).

Now the Ukrainian (and Georgian) media have stated that a significant part of the Buk launchers and missiles for them were sold by Ukraine to Georgia, especially from that 223rd regiment in the Carpathian region.

It is a fact that the Ukrainians under Yushchenko supplied Georgia with various types of weapons, including Buks (and missiles for them, of course).

How it was formalized - who knows. Maybe it’s just like “here’s a Bukov division, and a bunch of missiles for them.”

But if the specific side numbers of those missiles and the numbers of their units are documented, and if it turns out that the Ukrainians delivered this particular missile to Georgia, and then in Georgia it is listed as captured by Russia during the Five-Day War - then “oops” for Russia.

Then it turns out that Russia, handing over its Buk to the service of these “Dambass parasites”, deliberately selected missiles for it so that they were some kind of “left”, to which Russia supposedly has nothing to do.

What is it for? Here, conspiracy theories may worsen that Russia was deliberately planning to shoot down a civilian airliner with such a missile in order to obtain something like a casus belli with Ukraine, carte blanche to launch a full-scale operation. And that is why she stockpiled more or less serious weapons, like Bukiv missiles, somehow connected with Ukraine.

I personally don’t believe this, that Russia needed a casus belli for a full-scale war with Ukraine. Yes, when Russia (“Muscovy”) thought that it was able to win, it never needed any “good reason.” She simply attacked (as in this war - with the occupation of Crimea). And when she felt that she could rake through the tinsel here, she crawled away, having even a dozen “casus belli.” As it was, say, after the Su-24 was shot down by the Turks. Well, such a vile Muscovite soul is something that has no place in the world and should not exist.

And there will be no discussion on the topic “What if it wasn’t the Russian Buk that shot down the Boeing?” It is absurd to suggest anything different here.

But if Russia provides evidence that a missile with such engine and nozzle numbers belonged to Ukraine all the way (and was not transferred to Georgia or Crimea, where it could have been captured by the Russians), then the question will be one: “Did you steal these parts in order to throw it at the crash site - or did you steal the missile to fire it at the Boeing?”

Well, how can I explain this? Imagine that in “The Meeting Place” - from the very beginning the cops know that the murdered Larisa Gruzdeva had a friend Fox, a professional bandit. And she was killed - from her husband Gruzdev’s Bayard award pistol (by the way, in the film it is not Bayard that is shown, but a Walter of the seventh model, if anyone is interested), which was kept in Larisa’s apartment, and was found in the rented room where Gruzdev lived with his new passion.

Moreover, Gruzdev is a military surgeon, and Fox is a certified scumbag. And the investigation knows from the very beginning about the presence of Fox, and who he is in life.

Naturally, the main question will be - “Well, how did you, Fox, plant that bagpipe from which you killed Larisa in order to frame a slightly hot-tempered, but generally positive surgeon, whose only fault is that he did not deal with his women in time? , but he’s scattering pistols everywhere?”

Well, something like this. Reputation still matters too.

Ukraine, of course, was a mess throughout the post-Soviet years, which they are only now trying to somehow straighten out.

And Russia is not only a mess, but also an overwhelming number of schizoids with delusions of fucked-out imperial grandeur, including in the armed forces, and these offended ones are really ready to do a lot to increase their self-esteem.

But I still don’t want to believe that on the Russian side, the Buk crew could deliberately fire a missile at a civilian passenger airliner, realizing the nature of the target.

An international investigative team has concluded that the Buk complex, from which a civilian Boeing was shot down near Donetsk on July 17, 2014, belonged to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile air defense brigade located near Kursk. Earlier, members of the Bellingcat research group came to the same conclusion. Based on these data, Snob tells how the Russian Buk got to the missile launch point from the territory of the DPR and returned back

Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke speaks next to part of the BUK missile that was fired during Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Photo: Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP

The Buk path

“Hi, Igor, have you forgotten Bison yet?” — wrote at the end of April 2014, a man under the pseudonym Zubr, aka Karakhan, aka Khmury, to the then head of the DPR Igor Strelkov. Khmury is an Afghan veteran and retired GRU officer Sergei Dubinsky. He lives in a village near Rostov and is considered the leader of the operation to transport the Buk, which shot down a Malaysian Boeing in 2014. Supposedly his voice is on the intercepted recording asks send the “little thing” to Pervomaisky. It was from there, investigators believe, that the plane was shot down. Dubinsky himself denies everything. He and a hundred other people, whose full names have not been disclosed, are considered by investigators from the Netherlands to be involved in the transportation of the Buk and the attack on a civilian plane.

On June 23, a convoy of 45 vehicles, including 6 Buk complexes on tractors, left the territory of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, located near Kursk, and went towards the Millerovo military airfield, which is located near the border with the territory of Ukraine controlled by the DPR.

For two days, a tractor with a Buk missile launcher, number 332, was traveling as part of a convoy, bypassing the M-4 highway. According to Bellingcat, it has been spotted in the populated areas of Stary Oskol, Alekseevka and Rossosh; further, in the Boguchar area, the convoy turns onto the M-4 highway and reaches Millerovo on July 25.

Three weeks later, on the night of July 17, the Buk was transported on another tractor from Millerovo to Russian Donetsk. It crosses the border with Ukraine no later than 4 a.m. in the area of ​​the Severny / Verkhnyaya Orekhovka settlements across the field.

At about 8 o'clock in the morning the Buk was spotted near Yenakiyevo. According to intercepted negotiations of the DPR military, the installation crossed the “strip”, that is, across the border, on a tractor, after which it was moved “to the trawl” and sent further “under its own power.” By “trawl” we mean a Volvo truck from the Donetsk company Stroymekhanizatsiya OJSC; it is the one that carries the installation. He is accompanied by a black Volkswagen and a camouflage UAZ.

For some time the convoy stops in Ukrainian Donetsk - this is the westernmost point of the Buk's location, then it goes east again - at approximately 11 o'clock in the morning the convoy leaves for the city of Torez. In the village of Snezhny, neighboring Torez, the Buk was unloaded from a tractor near the Furshet store, then the Buk drove under its own power into a field a few kilometers from the village of Pervomaisky.

Attack

In the month and a half preceding the disaster, Ukraine lost at least 15 aircraft in the skies over Donbass. Three days before the Boeing crash, a Ukrainian An-26 military transport plane crashed, and a day before, two Su-25 attack aircraft.

Flights below 9,750 meters above the combat area were banned by Ukraine on July 1; flight level FL330 at an altitude of 10,050 meters was the lowest flight level at which flights were allowed. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing with 298 passengers on board took off from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at 14:31 Moscow time. Twenty minutes before the disaster, the crew deviates 37 kilometers north due to bad weather conditions. A minute before the attack, the Ukrainian dispatcher transfers the flight under Russian control. The plane is flying at FL330.

“People were falling from the sky. They flew with their arms and legs outstretched. They fell straight to the ground,” said local residents who found 40 corpses in their own yards.

— A plane was just shot down, Miner’s group, fell behind Yenakievo, — speaks a man whose voice is similar to the commander of the “Bezler detachment” Igor Bezler.

“Got it, ***,” answers a man whose voice resembles GRU Colonel Vasily Geranin.

After this, there is a second conversation, where two unknown people discuss that “the plane was civilian” and “there are a lot of two hundredths.” The third conversation is with an unknown and, presumably, Cossack ataman Nikolai Kozitsyn. “They report on TV that the AN-26 is a Ukrainian transport aircraft. But it says "Malaysian Airlines" on it. What was he doing on the territory of Ukraine?” - says the unknown person. “So they brought in spies. Don’t f*** fly, there’s a war going on now,” sums up the man with Kozitsyn’s voice.

After the attack

The Buk, according to the analysis of telecommunications data, went back immediately after the missile launch towards the village of Snezhny, then reached the village of Krasny Luch and through the village of Debaltsevo arrived in Lugansk. Early in the morning of July 18, 2014, a Volvo truck carrying a Buk was captured by a surveillance camera in Lugansk. The footage shows the Buk traveling towards Russia with three missiles instead of four.

According to the SBU, they managed to intercept a telephone talk, which took place on the morning of the removal of the combat installation. The voices belong to unidentified DPR militias:

“That’s it, the car went where it needed to go and arrived normally, that’s all.” There just started strange calls from ten more people.

- From what ten?

— Well, different people started calling his (the driver’s) number and introducing themselves. Then, he says, Strelkov himself ( Igor Strelkov is the former commander-in-chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. — Approx. ed.) started calling. And he took and turned off the phone. And we don't know where the car is at all.

The OSCE humanitarian mission took two days to reach the bodies and wreckage: on July 18 and 19, armed men did not allow rescuers to reach the wreckage. “The plane lies between two fronts,” DPR Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Purgin told reporters. “We are trying to prevent the Ukrainian military from opening fire on OSCE observers. We bring them to a line where a heavy machine gun can reach. Then we can, of course, release them, but then we will be accused of not ensuring their safety.”

Rescuers gained full access to the wreckage on July 20. They photographed the bodies and put them in bags for transport. Then the corpses, according to the then Prime Minister of the DPR Alexander Borodai, “with maximum correctness” were loaded into five refrigerated cars at the Torez railway station.

“This tragedy would not have happened if there had been peace on this land, if hostilities in the south-east of Ukraine had not been resumed,” Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the leadership of Malaysia.

By that time, the Buk had been in Russia for several hours.

Prepared by Igor Zalyubovin

Serial number on one of the pieces of the missile that shot down the Malaysian Boeing

The Buk self-propelled gun system, which was used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, is in service with the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, stationed near Kursk. This was officially announced on Thursday at a press conference in the Netherlands by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which is conducting a criminal investigation into the death of a passenger plane in the summer of 2014 over the Donbass.

An international investigative team, based on the results of the work of forensic experts, collected evidence and photographs of eyewitnesses, data from radars and satellite imagery provided by Ukraine, Russia and the United States, previously managed to collect irrefutable evidence of what weapons were used to shoot down the Malaysian Boeing, and where these weapons came from appeared and from what place it was launched. So, there is no longer any doubt that the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system) from territory in Eastern Ukraine, which at that time was under the control of pro-Russian armed groups. The exact location of the rocket launch is known (the village of Pervomaisky, located near the town of Snezhnoye), the type of warhead (BUK class 9M38 anti-aircraft missile), and also the fact that the Buk launcher was brought from Russian territory and then taken back.

JIT head Fred Westerbeke speaks at a press conference on May 24

On Thursday, this data was supplemented with information about the Kursk 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and a detailed description of the route along which the military convoy went from Kursk to Ukraine. Journalists were also shown fragments of a rocket discovered in the Donetsk region - an engine nozzle and a body - with numbers that indicate that the rocket was manufactured in Russia, in Dolgoprudny (Moscow region).

During the press conference, various video recordings made by residents of settlements passed by a military convoy heading from Kursk to the Donetsk region were shown. The joint group obtained a lot of such recordings, which is not surprising if you imagine what an impressive sight the convoy of 50 vehicles, including six Buk self-propelled firing systems, was, said the head of the criminal investigation department of the Dutch police, Wilbert Paulssen. The first video recordings were made on June 23, 2014, when the convoy left Kursk in the direction of the village of Nikolskoye. The convoy was also filmed in the following days - in the area of ​​the settlements of Stary Oskol, Alekseevka, Neznamovo. Investigators carefully checked all footage with Google Street View( https://www.google.com/streetview/). The latest video footage of the convoy is dated June 25, 2014.

The missile was produced in Russia, in Dolgoprudny (Moscow region)

As Wilbert Paulssen noted, all Buk self-propelled guns in the convoy had three-digit numbers on their hulls, starting with the number 2. The Kursk 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade has three battalions, that is, hundreds of people. The number 2 on the hull means that the installation belongs to the second battalion. Only one Buk self-propelled firing system as part of the Kursk convoy had a number starting with the number 3. Moreover, the second and third numbers were partially painted over. According to Paulssen, this is common practice if the installation is preparing to participate in a military operation. As a result of a detailed analysis of all photos and video materials depicting the convoy, as well as photos and videos depicting the Buk launcher taken later (July 17 and 18, 2014), the investigative team was able to establish that it was this particular launcher with a number starting with the number 3, that is, referring to the third battalion of the 53rd brigade, was used to strike the Malaysia Airlines passenger airliner. Seven distinctive features helped to come to this conclusion, which are invariably repeated in all photographs of this installation throughout the entire route. These are white numbers, markings and a stripe on the body, as well as a certain sequence of wheels (the way two types of wheels alternate with each other).

Comparative analysis of side plates of Buk 312, 322 and 332 (from a previously published Bellingcat investigation)

The rocket fragments found in the Donetsk region were also presented in the press conference hall.This is a Venturi nozzle, the rocket's flue and shell, as well as its engine housing. The number is clearly visible on the outer surface of the case: 9D1318869032. According to Australian police spokeswoman Jennifer Hurst, the first five characters of this number and the letter “D” indicate that the missile was produced in the Russian Dolgoprudny.

Hurst also put out a call for possible witnesses to ask if anyone could help decipher the other handwritten numbers on the nozzle, or if anyone could recognize the handwriting of the person who made these designations. The JIT website contains photographs of the wreckage and a list of questions:

1. Do you recognize the handwriting in which the number on the Venturi nozzle is written?
2.Do you have information about the numbers on it?
3. Do you have information about the numbers on the shell? Can you confirm the meaning of these numbers, or do you know anyone who can?
4. Do you know anyone who knows, or do you yourself know the serial number of the rocket to which these parts belong?
5. Do you know anyone who knows, or do you yourself know the unit to which these parts of the rocket or the rocket itself were delivered?

We are not talking about suspects yet, but only about those “involved” in the crime

Perhaps, Hurst continued, someone will be able to tell more about the rocket itself based on these distinctive features. Of course, we are talking about confidential information, but JIT recalled the current witness protection program.

The main purpose of the press conference was to call for help to additional possible witnesses who, for some reason, have not yet found an opportunity to contact the investigative team, including pro-Russian militants who are looking for opportunities to leave the conflict zone. We are not talking about suspects yet, but only about those “involved” in the crime. During the press conference, they were all called “witnesses.”

The head of the investigation team, Fred Westerbeke, said last fall that he had a hundred specific individuals in mind, but again no specific names were mentioned at the press conference on May 24. The official JIT website states that the investigation is particularly interested in information about two individuals:

Person 1: Alias: Orion (call sign) Name: Andrey Ivanovich
-Person 2: Alias: Dolphin (call sign) Name: Nikolai Fedorovich

The Joint Investigation Team has several recorded telephone conversations involving the two. Recordings can be listened to on the website .

Answering the question why those involved in the crime have not yet been called in for questioning, Fred Westerbeke said that on Thursday for the first time official information was published about which unit (53rd Brigade) was behind the missile launch. He did not rule out that witnesses would be called in for questioning in the future.

Soldiers of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade at the Buk launcher

The investigation has now entered its final phase, Westerbeke said. The goal remains to “bring those responsible to justice,” but much more patience will be needed to wait for the final verdict. These statements by the head of JIT raised puzzling questions from journalists. Why is the investigation taking so long? Why is the joint investigation team only today publishing data on the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade that Bellingcat published two years ago (Radio)? According to Westerbeke, the findings of the international investigation team are the carefully verified results of a criminal investigation and can be used in court. This is not an investigation by independent open source journalists. He added that the conditions for conducting the investigation remain extremely difficult. The crime scene is still partially beyond the access of investigators; often the necessary missing information is classified as “secret” and is a military secret. In addition, not all parties are actively cooperating with the investigation. “I note that the Russian side never provided us with key information,” Westerbeke said in response to a question about the level of interaction with the Russian authorities.

BONUS:

“There is more evidence, but we will not reveal our cards yet.”

Investigation: The Buk that shot down MH17 was delivered from the 53rd Kursk Anti-Aircraft Brigade

Members of the international investigative team showed journalists a capsule from the air defense missile that shot down the Boeing. It has serial number digits on it. Photo: Pavel Kanygin / Novaya Gazeta

The Buk anti-aircraft missile system, from which the Boeing 777 on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in the summer of 2014, was delivered to Donbass from the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade located near Kursk. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) came to this conclusion, a Novaya Gazeta correspondent reported from a press conference.

Investigators are confident that the car left Kursk on June 23, 2014, then was delivered to Millerovo (Rostov region), and from there to eastern Ukraine. There are now about a hundred people suspected of involvement in the plane crash, whose names have not been named by the investigation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagpuXaiUlk

As evidence, many photographs and videos were presented at the press conference, which captured the movement of this particular Buk through Russian territory. Based on them, the investigative team established that this air defense system has a number of unique features: traces of paint, dents on the body and serial number numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVyx6eDHUP8

When asked by Novaya Gazeta correspondent Pavel Kanygin whether the investigation has other evidence, such as satellite images, the head of the international investigative team, Fred Westerbeke, replied: “We do not demonstrate absolutely everything that we have, because in this case we “let’s show our cards” to the other side. We're not going to do that for now."

The investigation has already requested an answer from the Russian side to the question of what the Buk from the Kursk brigade was doing in the Donbass in the summer of 2014. JIT also called on all possible eyewitnesses of the tragedy to contact the investigation, promising them complete safety and anonymity.

Earlier, investigators from the BellingCat organization reported that the Buk that shot down a passenger plane in Donbass was assigned to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk. They also called the air defense missile system number - 332. Thus, an international group of investigators confirmed the conclusions of citizen journalists.

Members of the Joint Investigation Team at a press conference dedicated to the investigation into the Boeing 777 crash in Donbass. Photo: Pavel Kanygin/Novaya Gazeta

WELL, WHO WOULD DOUBT...

The Ministry of Defense criticized the approach of Dutch investigators to the MH17 case

Rescuers work at the crash site of a Malaysian Boeing 777 plane near the city of Shakhtersk, Donetsk region.
RIA Novosti / Andrey Stenin

MOSCOW, May 24 – RIA Novosti. The Russian Ministry of Defense expressed concern about the focus of the Dutch investigation into the Malaysian Boeing to substantiate its conclusions using only images from social networks.

“The focus of the Dutch investigation on substantiating its conclusions by using only images from social networks, subjected to skillful processing with computer graphic editing tools is cause for concern. Moreover, some of the images used during the briefing, prepared by Ukrainian intelligence services, have previously been shown more than once by pseudo-investigators from Bellingcat,” it says in the message.

A Malaysian Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17, 2014 near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. There were 298 people on board, all of them died.

Kyiv blamed the militia for the crash; they said they did not have the means to shoot down an aircraft at such an altitude. The report of an international investigative team claims that the Buk air defense system that hit Boeing was allegedly delivered from Russia and then returned back.

Moscow stated that the investigation was biased, the conclusions of which were based only on data received from Ukraine. Experiments by the Almaz-Antey concern, a leading enterprise in the production of air defense systems, including the Buk complexes, also confirm that the Boeing was shot down from territory controlled by the Ukrainian army.

At the rehearsal of the parade dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine, the country’s air defense forces also took part, including the Buk-M1 complex, which, according to Kyiv, it has no trace of...

Despite the statements of the Ukrainian military, who assured the West that they simply had nothing to shoot down the Malaysian Boeing with - all Ukrainian air defense systems had long been sold to Georgia, several Buk-M1 complexes passed through the center of the Ukrainian capital as if nothing had happened. and “S-300”, as well as the “Osa” complexes.

UKRAINIAN MIRAGES

As the rehearsal of the military parade for Independence Day in Kyiv showed, Poroshenko decided to show the full power of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and brought samples of his latest equipment (Soviet model, of course) to Khreshchatyk. Among them are six Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems. It was from these “Buks” that a Malaysian Boeing 777 was shot down in the sky over the village of Grabovo near the city of Torez.

And the announcer proudly announced to the entire Khreshchatyk:

“These anti-aircraft missile systems are ready to shoot down targets at altitudes of up to 12 kilometers in conditions of strong radio interference!”

Thus, Kyiv’s assurances that “it does not have serviceable Bukovs” turned out to be its usual nonsense.

Previously, the authorities and military of Ukraine have repeatedly been caught lying about the Buks: sometimes tests of such air defense systems were shown on Ukrainian TV, and then Advisor to the President of Ukraine Igor Smeshko swore in Brussels that there are no combat-ready Buks in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces:

“The last Ukrainian combat-ready division of the Buk-M anti-aircraft missile system with combat-ready units and missiles was sold to Georgia,” Smeshko assured.

Yakimenko

"A LIE OF PURE WATER"

The statement of Kyiv and the real situation regarding the arming of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with ZhurPravda anti-aircraft missile systems were commented on by Alexander Yakimenko, a retired lieutenant colonel, member of the public organization “Officers of Russia”, expert of the Izborsk Club. He is directly aware of the situation in the air defense of Ukraine, and in addition, in 2015 he himself visited the Donbass, in the Debaltsevo region.

Alexander Yakimenko is convinced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have BUKs:

“All those statements that the military leaders and leadership of Ukraine previously made are pure lies. It was the Ukrainian Buk that shot down this Boeing, which was argued and proven by Russian experts. Although the West did not listen to them and refused to accept the results of their investigation.”

As for the statements of Petro Poroshenko’s adviser, Colonel General Igor Smeshko, the military expert called them “lies”:

“I would advise this adviser to go to the war zone in Donbass, and after that make such statements. And since I was there, I know that there are Buks there. Although they are assembled from old materials - that is, from several copies of the air defense system, one functional air defense system is assembled,” Lieutenant Colonel Yakimenko explained to ZhurPravda.

In Ukraine, they tested a refurbished Buk-M1 complex, where, according to the military, there are no such Buk systems!

Let me remind you that even the day before the Boeing 777 crash, the TV channel