Russian ‘Buk’ manufacturer reveals its full report on MH17 crash

The news agency TASS has published the full version of a report about the MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, put together by Russia’s air-defense systems manufacturer Almaz-Antei. TASS says that the report “describes in detail the likely version of events which took place in the sky over Donetsk on July 17, 2014.”

Almaz-Antei, which manufactures Buk missiles, announced at a press conference on June 2, following the company's own investigation into the crash, that a a Buk 9 М³8 М1 was responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Almaz-Antei also concluded that the rocket that shot down Flight MH17 was launched from the village Zaroshchenskoe in the Donetsk region, which was under Ukrainian military control at the time.

Experts have consistently proven that if the Boeing was hit by a surface-to-air missile, it could have only been a 9M38M1 missile from the Buk-M1 series. Russia stopped making these [Buk-M1] missiles by 1999, which is three years before the manufacturing company was opened. The Ukrainian military has such missiles at its disposal.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. All 298 people on board were killed.

The final results of the Dutch-led investigation into the crash have not yet been disclosed (the report is due to be published in October 2015), though journalists have for months already claimed that missile fragments matching Russian-made Buk M1-2 warheads were found at the crash site.

Officials in the Russian Defense Ministry immediately supported Almaz-Antei’s claims about the location of the missile launch, disclosing satellite images allegedly depicting the placement of Ukrainian Buk missiles. Members of the investigative group Bellingcat claims these images are fake.

Bellingcat conducted its own investigation and concluded that Flight MH17 was downed by a missile launched from the separatist-controlled town of Snezhnoe. Members of the German nonprofit investigative organization CORRECT!V have supported Bellingcat's version of events.

Andrei Lysenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian President, denied the claims made in Almaz-Antei’s report. Ukrainian officials maintain that the missile that took down Flight MH17 was fired from separatist-controlled territory.