Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on Wednesday denied allegations in Russian media that cited Russian security authorities as saying Malaysian Airlines' MH17 might have been shot down by a Ukrainian warplane and naming the pilot of the plane.
“After an investigation the counterintelligence department denied the information that blamed the Ukrainian side for the crash of the Boeing of the Malaysian airline,” SBU spokesman Markiyan Lubkivsky told a briefing in Kyiv. “It has been found out that, in conformity with the plan for the counterterrorist operation, no aircraft from the Air Force … were used on July 17 [the date of the crash].”
Lubkivsky said data from the radar center in Dnipropetrovsk of the Ukraerorukh enterprise confirmed this.
He said Capt. Vladyslav Voloshyn, pilot of the Sukhoi Su-25 air support jet that, according to the Russian media, might have attacked the Malaysian plane, did take part in the military operation in eastern Ukraine but on July 17 was on an airfield in Dnipropetrovsk.
“According to a report from the command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and military unit A4465, the above-named officer made no flights that day, and his aircraft was under repairs because of damage inflicted during landing on July 16,” Lubkivsky said.
The spokesman cited Voloshyn as saying he didn’t know how the allegations about his possible attack on the Malaysian jet had found their way into the Russian media.
“Voloshyn claims that the photograph posted on the Internet had been taken during a flight show for the press in Mykolaiv [Ukraine] in summer 2012,” Lubkivsky said.
He added that Voloshyn’s Su-25 was shot down on August 29 and that Voloshyn ejected, for a while hid on militants-controlled territory, and had never carried out any flight missions since then.
All the 298 people on board the Boeing 777, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, died when the airliner crashed.
Among the victims were 196 Dutch nationals, 44 Malaysians, including the 15-member crew, and 27 Australians. There were also citizens of Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand among the passengers.
International investigations have resulted in a tentative conclusion that the crash was caused by damage from an external source, most likely a missile.
