Editor's note: A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger plane was shot down over Ukrainian territory on July 17 at around 4.20 p.m. An investigation has been launched into the incident, which occurred on rebel-controlled territory. The crash site continues to be patrolled by armed militants. Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for complicity in the deadly attack, which killed all 298 passengers on board.
Security Service spokesman: “no doubt” of Russian involvement in MH17 attack
2.40p.m.: Vitaly Nayda, counterintelligence chief of Ukraine’s
Security Service, said there is “unconditional evidence” that Russia was
involved in the Malaysia Airlines attack.
At a briefing, Nayda
said there was no doubt that the Buk-M 1 missile system that fired at flight
MH17 on July 17 was operated by Russian officers who had crossed into Ukraine
from Russian territory.
“The rebels are
unable to operate the Buk-M 1 system. We know for sure that the team that
operated the system was Russian and had come from Russian territory,” he said.
The terrorists had
in their possession at least three Buk-M 1 systems at the time of the attack –
all were transported back into Russian territory in the early hours of July 18,
Nayda added.
Nayda said his team
was continuing to gather intelligence on the ground, although he couldn’t
comment on the number of people involved in the operation. A full collection of
evidence would be made public once the team had reached its conclusions, he
added.
“We continue to
provide the evidence we gather to all our international partners, who include
Dutch specialists and the FBI. We share all the data we collect with our
colleagues,” he said.
Commenting on the possible motivation of the separatists in
targeting a plane flying at an altitude of 10km, Nayda said their tactic was to
target all aircraft passing over the territory they claim.
“The terrorists have a plan to shoot down every plane flying
over the territory of [the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic]. They
probably thought the Malaysia airlines was another cargo plane,” he said. – Matthew Luxmoore
OSCE team’s movements restricted – OSCE spokesman
2p.m.: Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the OSCE special monitoring mission
in Ukraine who is on the crash site, said that bodies are being moved to the
side of the road from the crash site and placed in bodybags by people claiming
to be fellow experts.
The 24-man
OSCE team has been unable to question those moving the bodies.
“It
looks like a war-zone here. There are lots of people with heavy arms, we’re
being watched very carefully,” he said on a phone link with a press briefing in
Kyiv.
“We
cannot question those on the crash site as out movements are being restricted,”
Bociurkiw added.
No
information is available about the location of the “black boxes” which form
part of the plane’s flight-recording equipment.
Bociurkiw told press that more access had been granted to investigative teams on July 19 than had been the case the previous day, when they were only given 75 mins to inspect the site. — Matthew Luxmoore
Reports of 65 bodies removed from site
1.30p.m.: An emergency worker on the flight MH17 crash site said 65 bodies have been removed from the area, according to Christopher Miller, a Kyiv Post reporter on the ground. He did not reveal to the press where the bodies were being taken. — Matthew Luxmoore.
Security Council spokesman: Rebels preventing investigative teams from gathering evidence
12.50 p.m.: Security Council spokesman Andriy Lisenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on July 19 that investigations into the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane two days prior continue to be obstructed by pro-Russian militants, who remain in control of the territory.
The bodies of 186 victims have been found thus far, but none
of them have been transported from the site as access is being prevented.
Lisenko said the Security Council currently has no information about the exact
location of the bodies.
Rescue teams have been searching across a radius of 25km
around the crash site, which includes nearby villages. They have even inspected
a lake on the territory, Lisenko added.
“The teams have no free movement across the crash site, the
terrorists are guarding the area,” Lisenko said. 18 vehicles and over 100
people are involved in the inspection, he added.
The armed militants patrolling the area are preventing teams
from taking evidence away for inspection, Lisenko said, adding that they have
been forcing members of the investigative team to hand over anything they have
managed to collect.
The Ukrainian side has not gained access to any of the “black
boxes”, or flight recording equipment, from the plane. Their location remains
unclear.
Meanwhile, the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border
remains tense, with Ukrainian army positions targeted. Three incidents of
mortar fire at a border crossing were recorded in the village of Marinka on
July 19, Lisenko said.
He also commented on an increasing rate of looting and
robbing in Donetsk and Luhansk, claiming militants have kidnapped several people in the regional cities with the aim of extorting money from them. — Matthew Luxmoore
