Airplane Was Shot Down Over Ukraine In 2014

A Russian military missile shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, according to a report released by a Dutch-let international team of investigators.

The Washington Post reports that the report, released Thursday, makes a direct link between the Russian military and the Buk antiaircraft missile that brought down the flight. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident.

The report could mean that Dutch prosecutors could sue the Kremlin in connection with the attack, according to the report.

Wilbert Paulissen, the head of the crime squad of the Netherlands’ national police, said that "the Buk TELAR by which MH17 was downed originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk, in the Russian. All of the vehicles in the convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces.”

But the report also leaves open the possibility that the missile could have been fired by another party. It has not been definitively determined whether the missile was fired by Russian troops or Ukrainian rebels that had acquired such weapons from Russia. The team said that the missile system was brought into Ukrainian territory and then towed back to Russia after the attack.

The missile system is technically complex, and Western officials have held that the rebels would not be able to target the jet flying at cruising altitude.

Paulissen said that the investigators have now obtained "legal and convincing evidence that will stand in a courtroom."

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report