UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-RUSSIA-FILE Russian Buk missile maker seeks to distance Moscow from MH17 crash

Record ID: 149940

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-RUSSIA-FILE Russian Buk missile maker seeks to distance Moscow from MH17 crash
  • Date: 2nd June 2015
  • Summary: COMPUTER GRAPHICS SHOWING MISSILE HITTING PLANE COMPUTER GRAPHICS SHOWING IMPACT OF MISSILE ON PLANE
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAC7KYGEEJW38B2GJ5B0MVD8QQM
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Russian company that makes the Buk air defence system which is widely assumed to have been used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner in east Ukraine said on Tuesday (June 2) the plane was hit by a missile which exists in Ukraine's arsenal and is not widely used by Russia's military. The company also criticised the sanctions imposed on Almaz-Antey by the European Union.
    "The goal of today's news conference by our corporation is to prove that the corporation was not involved in the tragedy in the sky over Ukraine - and subsequently that the economic sanctions imposed against it (the corporation) for that are unlawful and unfair," Almaz-Antey's chief executive, Yan Novikov, told a news conference run by the Kremlin press service at which the company used 3D visuals and computer animation.
    State-run Almaz-Antey corporation said its own analysis of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane brought down on July 17 last year, killing 298 people, indicated it was hit by a BUK 9M38M1 surface-to-air missile armed with a 9H314M warhead.
    "I hope we have proved convincingly that the anti-aircraft guided missile which hit the Boeing in the sky over Ukraine - if we consider a version involving an anti-aircraft guided missile - can only be a 9M38M1 missile from the Buk-M1 complex," Novikov said.
    Shrapnel holes in the plane were consistent with that kind of missile and warhead, it said.
    Such missiles have not been produced in Russia since 1999 and the last ones were delivered to foreign customers, it said, adding that the Russian armed forces now mainly use a 9M317M warhead with the BUK system.
    After a company presentation translated simultaneously into three languages, he said Ukraine's armed forces had still had nearly 1,000 such missiles in its arsenal in 2005, when it held talks with Almaz-Antey on prolonging their lifespan.
    "We can not say to which country did the missile belong, for the sake of the precision. Technicalle we have proved what type of missile it was. We have documents that prove that Ukraine has this missile in its arsenal," Novikov said.
    He also added that company's own analysis shows a potential spot where the missile that hit the plane was launched from.
    "It is not us offering some version. The calculations show the missile was launched from the area next to Zaroshchens'ke with an accuracy of 1.5 kilometres. And as I have already said we do not comment on the question who was there at that moment," he said.
    According to Novikov, his company is ready to prove it's calculations by an experiment.
    "If necessary, we are ready to perform a full scale real experiment involving independent observers and experts. We are ready to perform a 9M38M1 missile launch at the angles of attack specified in the presentation next to a decommissioned plane by the same producer. And the kind of damage (caused) will prove us unquestionably right," he said.
    When it imposed the sanctions on Almaz-Antey, the EU said the firm produced anti-aircraft weaponry which the Russian authorities have supplied to pro-Russian separatists fighting Kiev's forces in east Ukraine.
    Moscow is trying to deflect blame for the shooting down of the airliner and denies sending arms and soldiers to support the rebels, though the West and Kiev say they have overwhelming proof of the latter.
    Russian officials initially said flight MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet but that version was widely ridiculed abroad. They now say it was probably hit by a missile fired from the ground by Ukrainian forces.
    Ukraine has denied its forces shot the plane down.
    Dutch investigators who are leading an international investigation say their "leading scenario" is that it was hit by a Russian-made Buk.
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