MH17 was shot down over territory held by pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people aboard, majority Dutch citizens. “The weapon used was a warhead model 9N314M a missile 9M38 series, as installed on the Buk surface-to-air missile system”.
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The meeting with families of victims came ahead of the official presentation later of the investigation’s final report.
“We have proven with our experiments that the theory about the missile flying from Snizhne is false”, Almaz-Antey’s director general Yan Novikov told a news conference at a sprawling high-tech convention centre in Moscow.
A bitter war was raging in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces when the aircraft was downed and, amid a huge global outcry, many Western experts and governments immediately blamed the rebels.
Expressing sadness on the loss of the next of kin of passengers and crew, the prime minister said they were in his thoughts and prayers.
The Dutch Safety Board released a video explaining the circumstances surrounding the downfall of MH17.
The safety board, which is the Dutch transport watchdog, has made it clear it is not concerned with blame or liability as those are matters for the separate criminal investigation, which is due to issue its report in several months’ time.
Almaz-Antey said it had conducted an experiment on 7 October with Russian-made BUK missiles.
Just before the official release of results following the inquiry by the DSB, the company Almaz Antey said it had performed a test which “disputes the version of the Dutch”, adding that damage to the passenger plane pointed to the use of an older type of missile.
The Dutch Safety Board also mentioned that they have been unable to determine who was in control of the particular area where the BUK missile was sacked from. Officials say the crash site is located in an armed conflict area and access is very limited.
Tjibbe Joustra, the head of the Dutch Safety Board, said: “There was sufficient reason to close the airspace above eastern Ukraine”.
The investigators believe the plane broke up in flight because wreckage was scattered over a large area, communications with air-traffic controllers suddenly halted, it disappeared from radar, and black box data ended abruptly.
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“Even if the report doesn’t name those responsible, it will still allow us to close a few doors, to have a few answers”, said Pierre Chardom, a Belgian who lost his 51-year-old brother Benoit in the crash.
