Indications emerged yesterday how Pro-Russia rebels in Eastern Ukraine might have shot down the Malaysian airline MH17 last Thursday, killing 298 people on board.
The plane was travelling to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, Holland before it was shot in Eastern Ukraine airspace.
A motorist captures military truck carrying BUK M1 in border town.
He filmed a military truck on main road for two kilometres in ‘border area’ of Russia at 8.45pm on Saturday
Ukrainian sources have seized the footage and branded it ‘film of the BUK, the one that shot the Boeing’
A BUK launcher was pictured rumbling into pro-Russian rebel-held Torez just two hours before crash
Ukraine’s security agency, the SBU, has released recordings of intercepted phone calls, claiming they prove Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a group of Russian-backed Cossack militants
Neither recording – which allegedly includes a Russian military intelligence officer – could be independently verified
Laughing rebels filmed the plane as it crashed, gleefully bragging ‘that was a blast – look at the smoke!’
Is this the BUK missile system back home in Russia after shooting down flight MH17?
A driver followed the military truck on a main road for two kilometres in a ‘border area’ of Russia before uploading the footage, filmed with a dashboard camera, on the internet.
The cargo had no escort and Ukrainian sources have seized on it, captioning the footage: ‘A Russian blogger filmed the BUK M1 in Russia, the one that shot the Boeing.’
‘For two kilometres, a blogger from Russia has been driving behind covered BUK 1M which, according to his words, had been driving from the Ukrainian border. His opinion is that it is exactly that BUK that made the shot,’ said one version spreading on the web.
The driver is heard saying: ‘No kidding.’
While the footage is visibly in Russia rather than Ukraine, the exact location is not given.
A second truck is also evident in some frames.
It was filmed at around 8.45pm on Saturday.
Reports from Ukraine suggested the BUK had been smuggled in the dead of night into Russia soon after the plane was blasted out of the sky last Thursday.
It came after images were released of a launcher rumbling through Torez, held by pro-Russian separatists, just two hours before the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down.
In a tense phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron, said Russia would have to ‘present compelling and credible evidence’ that the Kremlin-backed separatists were not to blame for 298 people – including 10 Britons – being killed, despite the images and footage.
He told Mr Putin that blocking international investigators and rescue teams from accessing the site was ‘indefensible’, a Downing Street spokesman said.
Mr Cameron is furious that Mr Putin has kept him waiting despite the British death toll. A Downing Street source said Mr Cameron was expressing his anger that ‘ten of my citizens have just been killed with a plane that was brought down by a missile that was shot by Russian separatists’.
A Downing Street source admitted there was ‘a sense of frustration that we have not been able to speak to him sooner’. Following the call, Mr Cameron wrote on Twitter: ‘I’ve just spoken to President Putin. I made clear he must ensure access to the crash site so the victims can have proper funerals.’
Pro-Russian rebels yesterday said they had recovered the black boxes from MH17 and taken them to Donetsk where they will be handed over to international investigators.
Rebel leader Aleksander Borodai told a news conference in Donetsk: ‘Some items, presumably the black boxes, were found, and they have been delivered to Donetsk and they are under our control. There are no specialists among us who could pinpoint the look of the black boxes, but we brought to Donetsk some technical items which could be the black boxes of the airliner.’
However, Ukrainian security officials claimed yesterday that Russia has reinforced rebels with three multiple rocket launchers and four heavy tanks, while massing troops on the border.
Pro-Kiev authorities released details of what they claimed to be a recording of a phone calls from Friday afternoon between a senior rebel commander and a number of his men at the crash site discussing MH17’s black boxes.
The Nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment