Recovered cockpit

Last summer, fifteen months ago, in 2014 a civilian airliner (Malaysian flight MH17) was blasted out of the skies over eastern Ukraine by a Russian BUK launched surface-to-air missile with the loss of all 293 lives (mostly Dutch), some of who probably knew their deadly fate for more than a minute. The Dutch board team investigating the crash disaster balked at saying who was actually responsible for firing the missile (indeed it is not their job to apportion blame) – hardly surprising in light of constant Russian pressure, unbelievable denial by their President Putin of any involvement, and lack of cooperation from Moscow. It is obvious that such airspace in a conflict area should have been closed.

Unsurprisingly then, the Russians have now dismissed the final technical report of a few days ago, as biased in nature and the findings flawed – in the past year they have presented a variety of scenarios and arguments to avoid blame for the downing of the aircraft (Russian-backed Ukrainian rebels or more likely professional Russian soldier experts are suspected) – like claiming it was a Ukrainian fighter’s air-to-air missile, or one not of Russian production, or of current service Russian use, or alternatively was fired from Ukrainian government held territory, and voicing a difference of opinion on trajectory and where the warhead exploded, as well as claiming that the Dutch had provided them with false information. All smoke and mirrors as the saying goes. A UN Security Council plan to set up an international tribunal into the MH17 aircraft’s downing was simply vetoed by the Russians as being counterproductive – why, you might wonder?

Pictures have been published of a missile launcher brought from Russia being moved around rebel-held areas, and the safety board is confident that they have established, from recovered missile parts from the crash site, the actual model of the Russian warhead used – plus the Dutch have already, but not published, some identified persons of interest to their ongoing enquiry so they can be pursued and brought to justice.

[Next year the blame game should finally end when a Dutch headed criminal investigation concludes – then we might finally know the murderers, so justice and retribution can start at long last].