Disinfo: Ukrainian Secret Services defector reveals the truth behind MH17: it was the Ukrainians

Summary

Vasily Prozorov, a former officer of Ukraine’s State Security Services, the SBU, revealed at a press-conference in Moscow that Ukraine is behind the MH17 tragedy.

Disproof

No evidence given. Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Ukraine's aggressive and provocative behaviour. See examples of disinformation cases on MH17 here. Background Many competing and contradictory stories promulgated by Russian state-controlled media on MH17. 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. 24 May 2018, JIT stated that the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17 originates from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation.

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RIA
  • Reported in: Issue 142
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/03/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian, English
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Eastern Ukraine, Conspiracy theory, MH17
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Disproof

NATO launched a campaign of air strikes against Serbia beginning on the 24th of March 1999 to stop Belgrade's crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The primary purpose of the campaign was to end violence and repression and force Milosevic's to withdraw his military, police and para-military forces from Kosovo (see NATO statement from 1999). Genocide, as defined by the United Nations, means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. This was not the purpose of the NATO air strikes. Pro-Kremlin disinformation frequently distorts the number of civilian casualties of NATO bombing. See Polygraph's debunk three years ago. Read more about disinformation about the war in former Yugoslavia.

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Mar 24, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. The primary purpose of the campaign was to end violence and repression and force Milosevic to withdraw his military, police and para-military forces from Kosovo (see NATO statement from 1999). At the North Atlantic Council meeting on April 12, 1999, NATO expressed support for the "political aims of the international community: a peaceful, multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo in which all its people can live in security and enjoy universal human rights and freedoms on an equal basis". The NATO's military intervention was not intended for the facilitation of EU integration or gas plans, but ensure that "all the countries of south-eastern Europe to enjoy peace and security". Find more disinformation narratives on NATO and Yugoslavia here.

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Mar 24, 2019
Disproof

Unfounded claims on NATO. Similar cases can be found here and here. After Montenegro joined NATO, the defence spending in the country has increased with the intention of investing 2% of GDP in defence by 2024. The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro applied to NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme in June 2003. Montenegro declared independence on 3 June 2006, subsequently joined PfP and then NATO itself without Serbia. The reaction of the Russian government to Montenegro′s bid to join NATO had been increasingly hostile culminating in an attempt to stage a coup d'état on 16 October 2016, on the day of the parliamentary election that allegedly would have included assassination of Montenegro′s prime minister. Montenegro opened an investigation and indicted Russian GRU officers, Serbian and Montenegrin nationals.