DISINFO: Accusations against Russia in the MH17 investigation are a part of the information war against the country
SUMMARY
Accusation against Russia regarding the tragedy of MH17 in July 2014 is a part of information war against Russia, that has been ongoing since Ukrainian Maidan.
The announcement of the Joint Investigation Team [regarding the criminal persecution of 4 suspects for shooting down the plane] is an ordinary information dump in this war.
RESPONSE
One of the many recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the downing of MH17.
On the 19th of June, 2019, the Public Prosecution Service of the Netherlands announced it will prosecute four suspects - Russian military and intelligence officers Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko, commander of the military combat unit in Donetsk, for bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on the 17th of July 2014 killing all 298 passengers and crew.
The decision was made on the basis of the investigation conducted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), consisting of law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands.
The criminal investigation of the JIT has been ongoing since 2014. On 28 September 2016, the JIT announced that flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by a BUK TELAR system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the town of Pervomaiskyi in Eastern Ukraine, from where the missile was launched. After firing, the system - with 1 missing missile - went back to the Russian Federation. On the 24th of May 2018, the JIT announced its conclusion the BUK TELAR used to shoot down MH17 came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces from Kursk in the Russian Federation.