A Ukrainian official alleged Tuesday that a Russian officer deliberately pulled the trigger on a missile that took down the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane last week in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s director of informational security, Vitaly Nayda, told CNN he believed it was a “Russian-trained, well-equipped, well-educated officer” who “pushed that button deliberately.”
Nayda told the cable channel that Ukrainian intelligence supported that claim. He said that conversations between a Russian officer and Moscow taped by Ukraine show there was a report to the officer that a plane was coming several minutes before the missile believed to have shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was launched.
The recording of the alleged conversations has not been released, according to CNN.
Moscow has denied that it was responsible for pulling the trigger on the missile that downed the commercial jet. In the aftermath of the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the tragedy.
How can the authenticity of the recordings be proven? Sounds like spooks on the loose?
There will probably be a lot of mysteries unsolved about this plane, and lots of conspiracy theories and misinformation worldwide, just as there was for the previous lost plane from the same airline.
Rule purists want to deny ‘evidence’ conveyed by their own eyes as horror cannot be measured or weighed…Putie has thrived in these unquantifiable interstices within the digital age.
Of course, a Russian officer had to be directly involved in the missile launch as the Ukrainian insurgents make the Honey Boo Boo family seem like NASA Mission Control.
I think, to be clear, no Russian deliberately shot down a passenger aircraft. If that is what is being said its ridiculous. The downing of that plane was the product of recklessness and stupidity. It was not known to be a passenger craft and then targeted. It was stupidly thought to be a military craft ten hastily shot down.
The claim makes sense when you consider that the first official Russian reaction was to ask what a commercial jet was doing in that airspace. And in fact many other airlines were following alternate routes. In fact, in that first call transcription, the one Russian intelligence officer was asserting that if a commercial plane was in that space, there must have been spies on board. This provides context that gives the claim credence. Consider the Russian mindset at the time of the shooting.