The findings of the investigation in the case of the crash of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine that the Buk air defense missile system was delivered from Russia and then transported back are based on Ukrainian photo and video materials, Judge Dagmar Koster said at a meeting on Thursday, despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office earlier noted that the investigation team relied on unverified sources, ignoring irrefutable evidence, and the RF Ministry of Defense pointed to falsifications in the videos.
Hearings on the merits of the MH17 crash began on June 7 in the Netherlands. This week the court discusses general issues related to the investigation and case materials, including information provided by the Dutch prosecutor’s office.
“The investigation suggests that this system (Buk air defense missile system – ed.) Was brought from Russia and then brought back. In addition to this, the investigation team conducted an investigation to find out where exactly the Buk could be brought from Russia. Court notes that the investigation into the transportation of the Buk was based on Ukrainian video and photographic materials”, – the judge said.
According to him, more than 500 videos and photos of “Buk”, “found on the Internet”, were viewed by the investigation.
Russia has previously warned investigators against focusing on unverified sources. In particular, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Nikolai Vinnichenko in an interview with RIA Novosti noted that Russia does not question all information from social networks as part of the investigation, but believes that the Joint Investigative Group investigating the circumstances of the crash easily relies on unverified sources, while ignoring irrefutable Russian data.
Koster also said that the Buk air defense missile system has special markings that are applied to vehicles when they are transported by rail to Russia.
“The discovery of such markings suggests that the Buk is Russian, in the opinion of the Joint Investigation Group (JIT),” the judge added as he read out the case file.
As stated in the video materials presented earlier by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the video about the movement of the allegedly Russian Buk, which shot down the Malaysian Boeing flight MH17, across the territory of Ukraine is an animation based on a single photo. As stated in the video materials, “images of a tractor, a trailer and a Buk were inserted into the image of the corresponding section of the road during the production of this video”, and “in the episode showing the movement of the Buk in Luhansk, many signs of falsification of the video were also revealed” – the illusion of camera movement and focal length changes was created by animating a static frame, “as evidenced, in particular, by the absence of movement of foliage, trees and shrubs”.
The trial of the MH17 crash began in the Netherlands on March 9, 2020. Four defendants pass along it – Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. Pulatov is represented at the trial by an international group consisting of two Dutch and one Russian lawyers. The rest of the suspects are being tried in absentia.
A Malaysian Boeing flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014 near Donetsk. There were 298 people on board, all of whom died. Kiev blamed the militia for the crash; they said they did not have the means to shoot down an aircraft at such a height. The Joint Investigation Group (JIT), which, under the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Netherlands, without the participation of Russia, is investigating the circumstances of the crash, has previously presented interim results. The investigation claims that Boeing was shot down from a Buk anti-aircraft missile system belonging to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the RF Armed Forces from Kursk.
As RIA Novosti Vynnychenko stated, the Russian side transferred to the Netherlands not only the data of Russian radars, but also documentation proving that The Buk missile system that struck Boeing belonged to Ukraine, and it was launched from the territory controlled by Kiev, but this information was ignored by the investigators. At the same time, on the first day of the court session, the prosecution admitted that it had received and is studying the data of the Russian prosecutor’s office.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the JIT’s accusations of Russia’s involvement in the crash of the Malaysian Boeing are unfounded and regrettable, the investigation is biased and one-sided. President Vladimir Putin noted that Russia is not allowed to investigate the plane crash in eastern Ukraine, and Moscow can recognize the results of the investigation if it takes full participation in it. All of the missiles, the engine of which was demonstrated by the Dutch commission to investigate the crash of MH17, were disposed of after 2011, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stated that Moscow categorically rejects accusations of involvement in the crash of the Malaysian Boeing.