DISINFO: MH17 crashed due to an explosion on board
SUMMARY
Western investigative groups disregarded numerous details that could have altered the results of the investigation. There were three explosions on board prior to the crash, thanks to home-made bombs on board that were activated from a distance.
RESPONSE
One of many recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about the MH17 crash attempting to discredit the investigation of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and suggest alternative explanations for the crash to obscure the truth. The JIT came to the conclusion that flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a missile of the 9M38 series, launched by a BUK-TELAR, from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaiskiy. At that time, the area was controlled by pro-Russian fighters. The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after having shot down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. According to the JIT, the BUK-TELAR used to down MH17 originated from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. Based on the investigation conducted by JIT, the Dutch Public Prosecution service will prosecute Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of MH17 and murdering the 298 persons on board. The first session of the court proceedings started on March 9 2020 in the Netherlands. The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and co-operate in order to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are formally holding Russia accountable for this disaster. The US has supported the decisions of the Netherlands and Australia. See similar cases like that the MH17 disaster was carefully planned by Ukraine and Western intelligence agencies and that the JIT chose to ignore Russian evidence of the MH17 crash.