As I said 2 years ago, this is one of those cases, which Russia will not let lei, nor will it let it be forgotten. Russia will continue to bring this case up to the public attention until the perpetrators are identified.
And so it happens. A few days ago Russian Defence declassified radar data, showing that no object approached MH-17 from the position, designated by the Dutch committee as the BUK launch site. Russia also pointed out that Ukraine sits on the similar radar data. What was not said out loud is that USA had a military surveillance satellite over Ukraine at the time of the shoot-down, and is too still keeping the data from it classified.
The latest from the newsfront:
Russian radar data shows no missile attack on MH17 from rebel side, indicates Ukraine involvementhttps://www.rt.com/news/360634-mh17-ukraine-radar-data/ Newly discovered raw data picked up by a civilian radar station on the day of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash shows no signs of a missile being fired at the plane from territory controlled by rebels, the Russian military and radar producer said.
The existence of raw data was announced last week by Almaz-Antey, the producer of the Buk missile system. The system is believed by an international investigation to have caused the 2014 crash over Ukraine.
One of Almaz-Antey’s subsidiaries is the producer of the Utyos-T civilian radar station. One such station is deployed near Ust-Donetsky village in western Russia. According to Almaz-Antey, memory chips from that station were replaced in July 2014, shortly after the tragic incident, and were discovered recently. Until now no raw radar data of the situation around MH17 at the time it was destroyed was thought to exist.
The Lianozovsky Electromechanical Plant, the producer of Utyos-T, presented the raw data on Monday at a media briefing in Moscow. The data showed three civilian aircraft in the vicinity, including the MH17. The one closest to it was flying about 30km from the Malaysian Boeing at the time it was shot down.
“The Ust-Donetsky radar picked up no foreign objects near the Malaysian plane which could have caused its destruction,” said Viktor Meshcheryakov, the company's deputy chief radar designer.
This contradicts the scenario maintained by Kiev, under which a Buk missile could have been fired from the rebel-controlled village of Snezhnoye. The missile could have not been picked up by the radar if it had approached from a direction along the line connecting the radar station and the airliner, Meshcheryakov noted.
Gen. Andrey Koban, the head of the Russian Air Forces' radar troops, said the Russian civilian radar easily located an Orlan-10 surveillance drone circling closer to the Russian-Ukrainian border over Russian territory at the time of the incident. A Buk missile would have been easier to detect than the drone, he said.
The Russian military said Ukraine's refusal to publish its radar data, the positions of air defense batteries it had deployed in the area, and communications between MH17 and the Ukrainian traffic controller directing its flight towards the rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine, made it look suspicious.
“The Ukrainian side has air situation data in the area of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 crash from both civilian and military sources. The fact that Ukraine has not published radar data leads us to the conjecture that the missile, if it was a Buk, was launched from territory under the control of the Ukrainian military,” the general said.
It resembles the way Ukraine acted in 2001 after shooting down a Russian plane flying from Israel over the Black Sea, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said during the briefing.
The shooting down of Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 in October 2001 claimed 78 lives, but “despite irrefutable facts that put the blame for the Tu-154 crash on the Ukrainian military, [Kiev] refused to take any responsibility,” Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
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The passage above is also indicative that the plane may have been shot down by an AA missile...
My hunch is that the data was neither "misplaced" nor does it come from civilian radar. More likely, it was not made public back then in the hopes that hinting at the existence of such data across proper channels would make the perpetrators think twice about pursuing the lie, and because publishing such data back then could have been damaging to the Russian military security. You never show your hand in one go...
As I said above the following is the real reason for publishing this data:
Almaz Antey hands over radar data on MH17 inquiry, Moscow calls for other countries to follow suithttps://www.rt.com/news/360319-almaz-russia-mh17-crash/...
In its official statement, the company said the data in question is “the so-called initial radar images of the airspace in raw form.” That includes the registration of movements in the airspace over Eastern Ukraine on the day when the Malaysian Boeing went down in the area.
On Thursday, the official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, announced that Russia will pass this fresh batch of information on the MH17 crash to the Dutch-led international investigators.
The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zahharova, told journalists on Thursday that the move is crucial, since the information is “awaited by the relatives of the crash victims.”
"The move by the Russian company should become an important and relevant example for all other countries and anyone who has any information in order to understand what happened two years ago in the skies over Ukraine," Zakharova said.
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Russian radar would’ve spotted missiles east of MH17 crash site — Aerospace Forcehttp://tass.com/world/902254Kiev has not so far made public the information on location of its military surface-to-air units Buk on the day of the crash as well as the talks between flight data controllers and radar data
MOSCOW, September 28 /TASS/. The objectivity of conclusions made by an international group for investigating the MH17 Boeing crash is doubtful, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Major-General Igor Konashenkov said.
"We carefully studied today’s statements made by the Dutch Investigation Team, which is investigating the Boeing MH17 crash over Ukraine. The serious conclusions, which have been announced today, require serious arguments and moreover facts," the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.
"The data, which the investigation group presented at a briefing on Wednesday, had been taken from two main sources: the Internet and Ukraine’s security services. Therefore, the objectivity of that data and consequently the conclusions made on its basis cannot but be doubtful," Konashenkov stressed.
"For our part, we want a maximum objective investigation, which will help identifying persons who are really responsible for the July 17, 2014 crash. We will continue rendering all the necessary assistance to the investigation," he added.
Russian air defense systems never crossed Ukrainian border
According to Konashenkov, no Russian air defense systems have ever crossed the Ukrainian border.
"No Russian air defense systems, including Buk, have ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border. We made a firm statement to that effect immediately after the July 17, 2014 disaster," he said.
Radar data on MH17 flight
Deputy Chief Designer of the Utyos-T radar station of the Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant Viktor Meshcheryakov said on Wednesday that the radar data on the Ukrainian air space at the time of the MH17 crash made public by Russia recently will be transferred to the Dutch side soon.
"The data will be transferred soon. We’re not dealing with this. They have been transferred to the competent bodies. We are using the copies of these records in this demonstration," he said.
Buk missile producer: JIT probe lacks tech proof, experiments showed MH17 downed from Kiev-held areahttps://www.rt.com/news/360950-buk-producer-mh17-jit/Russian defense ministry doubts objectivity of MH17 crash investigators' reporthttp://tass.com/politics/902838Int’l investigators allowed Ukraine to fabricate MH17 evidence – Russia https://www.rt.com/news/360946-mh17-ukraine-fabricate-evidence/MH17 shot down by rebels using Buk system brought from Russia – int’l investigators https://www.rt.com/news/360925-mh17-crash-jit-report/