DISINFO: Ukraine has admitted that it is responsible for the crash of the MH17 in 2014
SUMMARY
Yevgeny Dikhne, President of International Airlines of Ukraine (UIA), blames Iran’s authorities for failing to secure airspace over their country. The statement was seen as acknowledging Kyiv’s guilt in the crash of another plane, the Malaysian Boeing. After all, then the sky was also not closed.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Flight MH17. Many competing and contradictory stories are promulgated by Russian state-controlled media on MH17. At that time, the airspace was closed over the area up to 32,000 feet. The commercial flight MH17 was passing the area at 33,000 feet. There was nothing to suggest at the time that the presumed ill-equipped pro-Russian separatists would have access to sophisticated weapons that would be able to shoot down an airplane at that height. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team has concluded 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 (or: Pervomaiskyi). 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 MH-17, was taken back to the Russian Federation. In 2018, Bellingcat confirmed that the BUK missile launcher which hit the airline near Donetsk was brought from Russia. See more on the investigation of the MH17 catastrophe by Bellingcat here.