UPDATE: Russian media reported two weeks ago the Russian-backed rebels had taken control of the very anti-aircraft missiles many suspect shot down the passenger plane, killing all 295 on board.
Even worse, the rebel “Defense Minister,” a known Russian agent, claimed credit for the shootdown earlier today.
God bless the Wayback machine, here’s the Russian operative’s original post on Putin-all-controlled social media site VK.com:
UPDATE: The Ukrainians have released alleged recordings of Russian operatives admitting to having shot down the plane.
Ouch.
UPDATE: CNN is reporting that the US government has concluded that the Malaysia Airlines flight was in fact shot down.
UPDATE: Video shows debris falling from the ski.
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Some in the Ukrainian government are saying that a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, that crashed along the Russian-Ukrainian border, killing all 295 passengers and crew, was shot down.
The Ukrainians are not saying by who.
UPDATE: Russian-backed separatists are reportedly blocking the Ukrainian government from reaching the crash site in order to retrieve the black box. If the Russians get their hands on the black box, kiss the evidence good bye. At that point, there will be “evidence” that the US shot it down with an ICBM.
Further update: The Ukrainians are now saying, at least some Ukrainian officials, that it was a Russian missile that shot down the plane. But we still don’t know whether that would mean the Russians themselves shot it down, or Russian-armed separatists.
The passenger jet, a Boeing 777, went down in eastern Ukraine, the portion of the country where the Russians have silently invaded with special forces in an attempt to foment a civil war.
Malaysian Airlines 777-200ER. (Credit Montague Smith.)
The Ukrainian ministry adviser said that the jet, a Boeing 777, had been shot down over a town in the east of the country, The Associated Press reported. Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukrainian security forces in that region.
The adviser, Anton Gerashenko, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a launcher known as a Buk. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.
A Ukrainian cargo plane crashed near the border on Monday, and CNN reported that the evidence is now pointing to that earlier plane being shot down. Which lends credence to concerns that the plane could have been shot down.
This would be a bad turn of events for the Russians. The fact that the plane was a Malaysia Airlines jet — the same company that lost a plane in Asia just a few months ago — only makes the story more bizarre. It also raises the question of whether someone is targeting Malaysia Airlines. It’s a possibility that has to be considered.
A CNN consultant just said you’d need a truck-based missile launcher to have taken down a jet. Not a shoulder-launched one. And the Russians, of course, have such technology. And their infantry has such equipment with them.
Stay tuned.
