Russians Downed Malaysia Passenger Plane in 2014

 

The chief lawyer of a Dutch-led team of international investigators¹ said the missile and launcher used to shoot down a Malaysian Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine in July of 2014 came from the Russian military.

The long-running investigation² had already had decided³ that a Russian-made Buk antiaircraft missile downed Flight 17. On Tuesday, the team announced that the launcher belonged to Russia's 53rd anti-aircraft brigade.

The announcement opens the possibility that the Dutch could sue the Russians for the attack that killed all 298 people on board.

The Russian Defense⁴ Ministry⁵ rejected the findings of the investigative team.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov questioned the fairness of the investigation.

“The investigation team had two main sources – the Internet and the Ukrainian special services," he said, adding that these two sources “cannot help but cause doubts."

Blaming Russia for the deaths of the European tourists on their way to Kuala Lumpur and bringing criminal charges against the Russian military or Russia’s government probably would worsen problems between the Kremlin and the West. After the attack on July 17, 2014, the West brought strong sanctions against Russia.

The Kremlin has always denied involvement in the incident

Since then, the Kremlin has argued with Europe and the United States over issues such as Russia’s support for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, the attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the poisoning in March of a former Russian spy in Britain.

The investigative team “has come to the conclusion that the Buk TELAR by which MH17 was downed originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk, in the Russian Federation,” said Wilbert Paulissen, the head of the criminal division of the Netherlands’ national police. He added that the convoy⁶ carrying the missile was a part of the Russian armed forces.

However, the team allowed for the possibility that the missile could have been fired by another party.

Konashenkov said no Russian missile launchers had ever been sent to the Ukraine to aid anti-Western rebels.

Rebel leaders said at the time that they were receiving military assistance from Russia. Investigators have been working hard to find out if Russian troops shot the missile or if it was Ukrainian rebels to whom the antiaircraft system had been given. The missile system is technically⁷ complex, and Western experts have said they do not believe the rebels would have had the technical expertise⁸ to target the plane.

The team said Thursday that the Buk missile system was brought to the Ukrainian shortly before the attack and went back to Russia shortly afterward⁹.

Paulissen added that the investigators had “evidence that will stand in a courtroom.”

At the time of the attack, the battlefield in eastern Ukraine was filled with different armed groups. That spring, separatist fighters opposed to a new pro-Western government in Kiev seized control of territory in Ukraine’s industrial east. They were operating with Russian support, and Western journalists saw some Russian troops moving into eastern Ukraine that summer. The Russian government has long denied involvement in the conflict.

Vladi-mir Chizhov, Russian ambassador to the European Union, also dismissed the findings Thursday, saying, “This is an old story that was thrown into the informational environment back then, in 2014,” Interfax reported.

Rebels in eastern Ukraine on Thursday also denied possessing Russian weapons systems, Interfax reported, citing Eduard Basurin, a rebel official.

Flight 17 took off from Amsterdam and passed over eastern Ukraine on its way to Kuala Lumpur. In video footage from immediately after it was shot down, rebel fighters can be seen gathering¹⁰ in fields where most of the fuselage fell, celebrating what they thought was the downing of a Ukrainian military plane. Their celebration turned to worry when they realized it was a passenger jet.

The investigators on Thursday offered only open-source video and photographic evidence to support their decision that the missile came from a Russian military antiaircraft system. Some of the evidence already had been reported by the Bellingcat research group. But the international investigative team said that the decision was their own. They also said they had had additional information to back their decision, but would only release it in a courtroom.

Of the 298 people killed, 196 were Dutch, 42 were Malaysian and 27 were Australians. The victims were among more than 30 nationalities.

Dutch prosecutor¹¹ Fred Westerbeke said the team is beginning the last part of the investigation.

Anybody charged criminally with the plane’s shooting down could face justice in Dutch courts, but it is unlikely that Russia would be willing to extradite citizens to face charges. Eastern Ukraine remains¹² in the hands of pro-Russian rebels and Western police cannot enter the area.

Parts of the plane stretched across many miles of fields and small villages in eastern Ukraine. Bodies decayed in the hot July sun. Dutch-language travel books and card games from the children aboard the flight were spilled across the crash area.

I'm Susan Shand.

Words in this story:

sue – v. to use a legal process by which you try to get a court of law to force a person, company, or organization that has treated you unfairly or hurt you in some way to give you something or to do something

tourist – n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

sanctions – n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country

fuselage – n. the main part of an airplane

open-source – adj. material that is available to anyone, not secret

extradite – v. to send a person who has been accused of a crime to another state or country for trial

decay – v. to be slowly destroyed by

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

7 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

8 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。