Despite evidence that Russian-backed rebels were responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July, Russian media continue to find new culprits to blame for the incident. This time, Russian TV show Moment of Truth and the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper allege a Ukrainian air force pilot shot down the plane to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin-friendly outlets claimed that Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoyski, a vocal critic of Putin, thought Putin’s private jet flew the same route as MH17. He allegedly enlisted help from pilot Lieutenant Colonel Dmitro Yakatsuts and air traffic controller Anna Petrenko to shoot down Putin’s plane.
Their evidence? Kolomoyski and Petrenko “disappeared” to Dubai after the tragedy and have not been seen since.
“No one is searching for them,” said TV presenter Andrey Karaulov. “It is the first case in the world that an air traffic controller that was in charge of the crashed plane is urgently sent on holiday. She wasn’t even interrogated. It is a pure criminal story, it is the biggest military crime of the 21st century.”
Russian military expert Aleksandr Shirokorad claimed the plane was hit twice. The cockpit “was hit by a 30mm cannon shot from the Su-25 plane,” and “30mm rounds were found in the bodies of the pilots.” A missile shot from the ground hit the rest of the plane.
The media released this report less than a month after an independent report claimed a BUK missile system that Moscow supplied to the pro-Russians shot down the plane. The Bellingcat Investigation combined journalist reports, social media posts, eyewitness accounts, and satellite images to prove their claim. The Kyiv Post released evidence of the militants bragging about the BUK missile system. After MH17 was shot down, the militants deleted all references to the system on their social media accounts. The Interpreter and the Associated Press each published an article that details the movement of the BUK missile system. All three concluded from concrete evidence that the militants owned a BUK missile system, Russia provided it, and it was in the area of MH17 on July 17.
As of press time, Ukraine’s air traffic control office had not responded to Breitbart News’ request for comment.
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