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Dutch-led commission for MH17 crash probe dishonestly used Almaz-Antey data — company

According to the statement, the map with the area allegedly calculated by Almaz-Antey as a possible area for the missile launch, which appeared in the Dutch report, is a clear example
Russian missile manufacturer Almaz-Antey news conference dedicated to the MH17 crash EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Russian missile manufacturer Almaz-Antey news conference dedicated to the MH17 crash
© EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The Dutch-led commission for the MH17 crash probe dishonestly used the data provided by the Russian antiaircraft missile system manufacturer Almaz-Antey, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The map with the area allegedly calculated by Almaz-Antey as a possible area for the missile launch [targeting the airliner], which appeared in the report published by the Dutch side on October 13, is a clear example showing that the international commission dishonestly used the materials provided by us," the statement said.

"A chart with a map given in the report designates the presumed area of the antiaircraft missile launch from a Buk air defense system according to the international technical commission’s version. This version was adopted by the company’s specialists as the initial conditions during preparations for the second part of a full-scale experiment with the explosion of the 9M38M1 missile near the fuselage of an Il-86 airliner and was convincingly rejected as part of the same experiment," the statement said.

Almaz-Antey carried out the second part of the experiment into the conditions proposed by the Dutch-led commission for the missile launch from the area of the settlement of Snezhnoye. The experiment’s parameters fully complied with the conditions offered by the commission but its results "vividly showed the inconsistency of the international commission’s version of the missile launch from the Snezhnoye area and the type of the missile’s warhead," the company said.

The area indicated in the commission’s final report as "the area of the missile launch allegedly corresponding to Almaz-Antey’s calculations [the territory located south-east of the town of Torez] was not designated as such in any of the documents sent by the company to the Dutch side," Almaz-Antey’s statement said.

Almaz-Antey sent the Dutch side the data on the characteristics of missiles from the Buk antiaircraft missile complex. Moreover, "the materials clearly indicated that none of the missiles from the Buk system could approach the airliner from any of the points of the area designated in the map of the international commission’s draft final report to meet the conditions of the encounter [with the airliner] explaining the Malaysian Boeing’s real damage."

MH17 crash investigation

The Dutch Security Council approved a final report on October 13 on the results of the probe into the Malaysian airliner crash in east Ukraine last year. The commission came to the conclusion that the airliner had been downed from a Buk antiaircraft missile system. Moreover, the missile could have been fired from the territory as large as 320 square kilometers in east Ukraine.

According to the report, the Boeing was shot down by the 9H314M warhead, which could have been carried by one of the 9M38 missile modifications. The document emphasized that Ukraine had not closed its airspace over the area of fighting, although there were all the grounds for that.

On the same day, Almaz-Antey presented the findings of its own probe confirmed by full-scale experiments. The company’s specialists confirmed that the Boeing had been fired at from the Buk air defense missile system from the area of the settlement of Zaroshchenskoye controlled by the Ukrainian military on the day of the air disaster.

Besides, the company’s experts concluded that an older missile modification, namely, the 9M38 missile, had been fired. The manufacture of these missiles stopped in 1986. These missiles were withdrawn from service in Russia in 2011.

MH17 crash

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 passenger airliner on a flight from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the area of hostilities between local militias and Ukrainian governmental troops in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region in July last year. All 298 people aboard the airliner died in the air crash.

Most of the air crash’s victims were Dutch nationals.

Versions were put forward that the airliner could have been hit by a surface-to-air or an air-to-air missile.

The Ukrainian authorities and the militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic accused each other of the airliner crash.

The UN Security Council resolved on July 21 to hold a comprehensive and independent probe.

Russia’s representatives have said on many occasions they are dissatisfied with how the investigation is being carried out and that the data presented by the Russian side are ignored.