RT News – 2014-07-22 12:50:15
http://rt.com/news/173976-mh17-crash-questions-ukraine
Malaysia MH17 Crash:
10 Questions Russia Wants Ukraine to Answer
RT News
(July 20, 2014) — Some Western states and Kiev rushed to find Russian involvement in the MH17 crash having no evidence to back their claims, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister told RT. He invited Ukraine to answer 10 questions to prove their commitment to an impartial probe.
Speaking to RT, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has criticized Western countries for jumping to conclusions just “24 hours after the crash” while there is no evidence.
“They try to show to the whole world that we are responsible for the crash. It is very strange that without any evidence my colleagues from Western media would like to find somebody who is responsible for the crash,” Antonov said. “It seems to me that this is part of information warfare which has been started against the Russian Federation and armed forces.”
Instead of using the incident as the pretext for groundlessly blaming one of the sides, the catastrophe over Ukrainian sky should be used as a possibility to restart cooperation to “prevent such tragedies in the future.”
“As for me, I don’t want to use this opportunity to blame anybody. I would just like to raise few questions for my colleagues from the armed forces of Ukraine,” Antonov said. “I hope they try to answer the questions, it will be a good opportunity for us to realize where we are, whether there is a possibility for us to restart cooperation and to find who is really responsible for the tragedy.”
“Answers for these questions could help us find an opportunity to prevent such tragedies in the future,” the Deputy Defense Minister said.
TEN QUESTIONS FOR THE UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES
1. Immediately after the tragedy, the Ukrainian authorities, naturally, blamed it on the self-defense forces. What are these accusations based on?
2. Can Kiev explain in detail how it uses Buk missile launchers in the conflict zone? And why were these systems deployed there in the first place, seeing as the self-defense forces don’t have any planes?
3. Why are the Ukrainian authorities not doing anything to set up an international commission? When will such a commission begin its work?
4. Would the Ukrainian Armed Forces be willing to let international investigators see the inventory of their air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, including those used in SAM launchers?
5. Will the international commission have access to tracking data from reliable sources regarding the movements of Ukrainian warplanes on the day of the tragedy?
6. Why did Ukrainian air traffic controllers allow the plane to deviate from the regular route to the north, towards “the anti-terrorist operation zone”?
7. Why was airspace over the warzone not closed for civilian flights, especially since the area was not entirely covered by radar navigation systems?
8. How can official Kiev comment on reports in the social media, allegedly by a Spanish air traffic controller who works in Ukraine, that there were two Ukrainian military planes flying alongside the Boeing 777 over Ukrainian territory?
9. Why did Ukraine’s Security Service start working with the recordings of communications between Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the Boeing crew and with the data storage systems from Ukrainian radars without waiting for international investigators?
10. What lessons has Ukraine learned from a similar incident in 2001, when a Russian Tu-154 crashed into the Black Sea? Back then, the Ukrainian authorities denied any involvement on the part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces until irrefutable evidence proved official Kiev to be guilty.
READ MORE:
Unverified tape released by Kiev presented as ‘proof’ E. Ukraine militia downed MH17
Moscow Calls for International Probe into
Malaysia MH17 Flight Crash
RT News
(July 18, 2014) — Russia urges an impartial and open investigation into the Malaysian Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine and an international commission to be set up. Addressing the UN, Russia’s envoy Churkin said a probe into Ukraine’s aviation authorities is also necessary.
“As we see it, it is necessary to investigate not only the crash itself but also how Ukraine’s aviation authorities performed their professional duties,” Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said as he questioned why a passenger flight was allowed over an area of armed conflict.
Malaysia Airline said in a statement on Friday that Ukraine’s traffic controllers ordered the Boeing-777 to lower by 500 meters when the aircraft entered Ukrainian airspace. It added that pilots were supposed to fly at 35,000ft (10,660 meters) throughout Ukrainian airspace, but air traffic control on the ground instructed MH17 to fly at 33,000ft (10,058 meters).
Russia’s envoy said ensuring the security of civilian aviation in a state’s airspace is the responsibility of the state.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Churkin called for an international commission under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to be launched. He said that a thorough investigation into the crash should be conducted and its outcome should not be prejudged.
Churkin told reporters at UN headquarters that Russia did not shoot down the Ukrainian fighter jet.
“We didn’t do it,” Churkin said.
Despite no clear understanding of what happened in the sky over eastern Ukraine yet, Kiev and Washington rushed to blame anti-Kiev militias, which the US envoy to the UN claimed could have received “technical assistance from Russian personnel.”
“We assess Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 carrying these 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur was likely downed by a surface-to-air missile, a SA-11 operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine,” US envoy Samantha Power told the UN Security Council in New York.
She ruled out that “shorter range” systems, which self-defense forces possess — manpads, SA-8, SA-13 systems — could have been used to down the plane.
“Only SA-11, SA-20 and SA-22 are capable of hitting an aircraft at this flight’s altitude of 33,000 ft,” Powers said.
“Separatists were spotted hours before the incident with the SA-11 system at the location close to the sight where the plane came down,” Power told the Council. “Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11 it is unlikely they could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel. Thus we can’t rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems,” she concluded.
Ukrainian Buk Battery Radar Was Operational
When Malaysian Plane Was Downed — Moscow
RT News
(July 18, 2014) — On Thursday, when a Malaysian Airlines plane was apparently shot down over Ukraine, a Ukrainian Buk anti-aircraft missile battery was operational in the region, the Russian Defense Ministry said, contradicting Kiev’s statements.
The battery was deployed at a site from which it could have fired a missile at the airliner, the ministry said in a statement. It said radiation from the battery’s radar was detected by the Russian military.
“The Russian equipment detected throughout July 17 the activity of a Kupol radar, deployed as part of a Buk-M1 battery near Styla [a village some 30km south of Donetsk],” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the radar could be providing tracking information to another battery deployed in the region, which was at a firing distance from the plane’s flight path.
Earlier Kiev said it could not have fired a missile at the passing civilian plane because it had no Buk missile launchers deployed in the region. At the same time the Ukrainians said the militias had no Buk systems in their hands, according to a statement from the country’s Prosecutor General.
After the Russian ministry came out with the statement, Bogdan Senyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reiterated Kiev’s position, saying that “anti-aircraft missiles have not been deployed during the anti-terrorist operation … they are all in place.”
The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 carrying almost 300 people on board crashed on Thursday as it was flying over Ukraine’s Donetsk Region. The plane was apparently shot down by a surface-to-air missile, although both Kiev and the local militias fighting against it deny responsibility. A flurry of condemnations and calls for a swift investigation followed the disaster.
Kiev Deployed 27 Anti-Aircraft Launchers
To Eastern Ukraine Ahead of MH17 Crash
DAHBOO77
(July 17, 2014) — The Ukrainian military has several batteries of Buk surface-to-air missile systems with at least 27 launchers, capable of bringing down high-flying jets, in the Donetsk region where the Malaysian passenger plane crashed, Russian Defense Ministry said.
Proof That Malaysia Flight MH17
Was Diverted Over Ukraine War Zone!
DAHBOO77 & Underground World News
(July 18, 2014) — This serves as absolute proof that Malaysia Flight MH17 was intentionally flown into Hostile Air Space! So perhaps before coming to “certain” conclusion about the involvement of this rebel or that, the key questions one should ask before casting blame, is why did the pilot divert from his usual flight plan?
Why did he fly above restricted airspace, and just what, if any instructions, did Kiev air control give the pilot in the minutes before the tragic explosion?
Here is the full clip of the Russian ministry releasing its own forensic analysis of what happened to flight MH17 (with English translation).
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
