Ukrainian authorities arrested a militant who allegedly took part in covering up the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines passenger flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 that killed 298 people.
The arrested man is Volodymyr Tsemakh, 58, a Ukrainian citizen from Snizhne, a town in Donetsk Oblast close to the Russian border. The town has been controlled by the Russian-backed militants fighting against Ukraine since 2014. Tsemakh joined them in 2014.
Tsemakh disappeared from his home in Snizhne on June 27, his daughter told BBC Ukraine. It’s not clear how he was moved into the territory controlled by Ukrainian authorities, but on June 28 he was brought to Kyiv, where a court arrested him for two months. He is being accused of terrorism.
Ukrainian authorities have been refusing to comment on Tsemakh.
Volodymyr Tsemakh, a Ukrainian man who was arrested on June 28, allegedly in connection to the downing of the flight MH17 in 2014.
His daughter told BBC Ukraine she thought he could have been detained in connection to the downing of MH17.
The flight MH17 was shot down by Russia-backed militants near Snizhne on July 17, 2014, on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur. All 298 people on board were killed. The majority of them were Dutch citizens.
The investigation of the attack is still on. The Joint Investigation Commission (JIT) led by the Netherlands Ministry of Justice, found that the plane was shot down by a missile from a Buk, a Russian service-to-air launcher system, that was brought from Russia.
After the attack, the weaponry was transferred back to Russia to cover Russian involvement.
Tsemakh may have helped transport the Buk launcher back to Russia.
In 2015, Tsemakh gave an interview to a local television channel where he hinted at his involvement in the coverup. The Current Time, a joint project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, found the video after Tsemakh’s arrest.
In it, Tsemakh says that he oversaw the air defense of the region where the Malaysian flight was shot down. Tsemakh says that he helped hide something. The name of the object that he helped hide was bleeped in the video, but Tsemakh looks like he could be pronouncing “Buk.”
His daughter Maria Tsemakh told BBC Ukraine she didn’t see how her father was detained. She said that she and her mother found blood and “traces of fighting” in their apartment.
If found guilty for participating in a terrorist group, Tsemakh will spend between 8 and 15 years in prison.
On June 19, the Joint Investigation Commission revealed four suspects responsible for shooting down the plane. Three of them are Russian citizens fought against Ukraine in Donbas, with the fourth one being a Ukraine national fighting against Ukraine. Tsemakh wasn’t among the suspects named.
