Russian leader Vladimir Putin once again blamed Ukraine for shooting down Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines in July 2014. In his interview with U.S. reporter Oliver Stone, he said there was a Ukrainian flight dispatcher of ‘Spanish origin’ who witnessed the disaster, which took place over Donetsk region.
This particular piece of the interview, which took place in July 2015, was not included in the TV version; however, Dozhd, the Russian opposition-oriented TV channel got a hand on it and published it.
‘As far as I know, after this horrific disaster, one of Ukrainian flight dispatchers - of Spanish origin, if I'm not mistaken, - announced he had spotted a combat aircraft in the corridor of the civilian plane. There could be nothing else but Ukrainian combat aircraft,’ Putin said. According to him, if the Boeing was downed with surface-to-air missile, ‘this could only happen at Ukraine-held territories’.
As is known, Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, flight number MH17, was destroyed while performing a regular flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia in July 2014. The tragedy took place in the sky over the militant-held section of Donetsk region. All 298 people aboard deceased; most of the victims,196, were Dutch, but there were citizens of another nine countries as well.
The international investigation group found out that the civilian aircraft was downed by the surface-to-air missile; it was fired from Buk, the anti-aircraft missile launcher, which belonged to a unit of the regular Russian army and was operated by servicemen of Russia’s armed forces. The group decided that the perpetrators of the tragedy will be judged in the Netherlands, namely in the ICCT.
