Source: theguardian
President Vladimir Putin and Russia's military top brass have attempted to strike back at accusations that they had supported the pro-Russian rebels suspected of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over easternUkraine.
"We can say with confidence that if military actions hadn't been resumed in eastern Ukraine on 28 June, this tragedy probably wouldn't have happened," Putin said. "In addition, no one has the right and no one should use this tragedy to achieve selfish political goals."
The Kremlin also announced that the country's security council would meet on Tuesdayto discuss "maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation". It was not clear whether Moscow meant to raise the issue of fighting near the Russian-Ukrainian border, which it said killed a Russian citizen earlier this month, or take steps to close the border to Russian volunteers and possibly weapons.
Officials and pro-Kremlin pundits have protested that the west is jumping to premature conclusions about the rebels' guilt and Russia's involvement. Meanwhile, the media has reported on a variety of theories, many of them since debunked, alleging that Ukrainian forces were trying to shoot down Putin's presidential jet or that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had been full of dead bodies.
Over the weekend, the defence ministry released 10 questions for the Ukrainian government which implied that Kiev was covering up evidence pointing to its own culpability. At a briefing on Monday, the defence ministry presented what it said was evidence suggesting that Ukrainian warplanes or air defence forces could be to blame, lambasted the west for "unfounded accusations" against Russia, and hinted at a possible conspiracy involving the United States.
Andrei Kartopolov, head of the military's main operations directorate, said the aircraft had deviated from its flight path. He showed Russian satellite images which he said revealed that "three to four divisions" of Buk missile launchers, the weapon widely suspected to be involved in downing the plane, had been deployed near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. One Buk complex had been moved from Donetsk to near rebel-controlled areas right before the tragedy, he claimed.
"Why and against whom did Ukrainian forces deploy such a powerful air defence formation near Donetsk, since it's well known that the rebels don't have aviation?" Kartopolov said.
Kartopolov also argued that a Ukrainian fighter jet, "probably an Su-25", had been detected two to three miles away from the Malaysian plane before it went down. Igor Makushev, head of the air force general staff, showed a video of a radar screen in Rostov-on-Don that he said revealed an unidentified aircraft, probably a military plane, appearing in the area after the Boeing went down. "Earlier, Ukrainian authorities stated that on this day warplanes were not in the area of the incident. As you can see, that isn't true," Makushev said.
Kartopolov finished by calling on Washington to release satellite imagery proving the missile was fired from rebel-controlled territory, wondering if "it was accidental or not" that a US satellite was overhead at the time of the incident.
"I'd like to note that the information we've presented is based on objective and authentic data of different Russian monitoring systems, in contrast to the unfounded accusations against us," he said. "I want to stress that Russian Federation did not give the rebels Buk surface-to-air missiles, or any other weapons or military equipment."
Kiev, Washington and Nato have all argued that Russian weapons have come across the border into eastern Ukraine in recent months, including a large group of military vehicles this month.
