Russian missile system brought down Malaysian airlines flight: report

Bellingcat said its journalists used social media and other publicly available sources including images of the suspected Buk-M1, which was dubbed 3X2 because the middle digit of its identification number was covered up.

The network said it found images of Buk systems in Russia and Ukraine’s Donbass region with identification numbers 312, 322 and 332 and claim that only 332, belonging to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, matches pictures of the so-called 3X2, suggesting it was the unit which brought down MH17.

It lists a catalogue of similarities between pictures of 3X2 and 332 and claims there is no doubt that the pictures are of the same Buk missile system.

“These details include the shape of the side skirt, a hollow wheel among spoked wheels on the right side, a dent in the left front panel, the arrangement and connections of electricity cables, the font and wider spacing of the digits of the unit designation, oil and soot stains, and white transport marks on both side skirts. The white gravity mark (appearing like a cross-hair) and transport mark on the left side of the vehicle were not unique for this vehicle in the convoy, but were clearly visible on Buk 332 both in the June 2014 convoy in Russia, and in July 17 and 18 photographs and videos while in eastern Ukraine,” Bellingcat said.

Bellingcat said it used those images and other sources, dating back as far as 2009, to compile reports which have been handed over to Dutch prosecutors who are conducting an official probe into the downing of flight MH17.

On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down while flying over Ukraine killing all 298 people onboard, most of them from the Netherlands.

The Reuters news agency reported that international prosecutors said the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, but that Moscow claimed Ukraine’s military was responsible.

(vb/pk)