Moscow – Kyiv, March 20 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) – The Ministry of Defense called “lies” published by the Ukrainian publication “Censor.net” a photo, allegedly proving that the Boeing over Donetsk was shot down by a Russian missile. A similar article was published by the Dutch publication RTLnews, reports RBC.
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According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the publication by Censor.net is a “stuffing” and a “lie.” Konashenkov said that the photo shows I-beam-shaped submunitions with which “only one missile is stuffed—the Buk-M1 air defense missile system, which is in service with Ukraine.” The striking elements of the Buk-M1-2, Konashenkov noted, are “small parallelepipeds, there are no I-beams there and cannot be.”
The Censor.net publication, which was commented on by a representative of the Ministry of Defense, contains a photo of the destructive element of the missile that allegedly shot down the Malaysian Boeing. According to the publication, this destructive element is identical to the elements of modern Russian surface-to-air missiles and the warhead of the Buk-M1-2 anti-aircraft missile system.
The same Censor.net publication in question notes that the Ukrainian Buk-M1 “could not have been in the deep rear of the occupied zone.”
An article about the analysis of the destructive elements found at the Boeing crash site was also published by the Dutch online publication RTLnews. According to the publication, hourglass-shaped submunitions are characteristic of the 9N314 warheads of the Buk-M1-2 complexes. The striking elements of the older Buk-M1 complexes, which are in service with the Ukrainian army, are diamond-shaped. The publication notes that the results of the analysis of the destructive element exclude the version that the Boeing was shot down by an airplane or a Ukrainian Buk.
The destructive elements that correspondent Jeroen Akkermans picked up at the Boeing crash site last year were analyzed. RTLnews provides expert opinions on other fragments found. In particular, the rocket fragment is curved “in the shape of a mushroom” - this means that the collision with the aircraft body occurred at high speed.
Last week, Reuters interviewed residents of the village of Krasny Oktyabr, which is located near the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing. Residents of the village claim that the missile that shot down the airliner was fired from territory controlled by the DPR militia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called this Reuters report “similar to a hoax.” Lavrov noted that the agency’s witnesses “managed to see” the plane crash 25 km from the crash site “in severe cloud conditions.”