MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Russia’s air route radar would have spotted any missile, should it have been launched at Malaysia’s flight MH17 east of the crash site, the chief of the radio-technical units of Russia’s Aerospace Force, Major-General Andrey Koban told a news briefing in Moscow on Monday.
"Had the Malaysian liner been downed with a missile launched from any area east of the crash site, the Russian radar would have identified it," the general said.
He pointed out that Russia’s means of impartial monitoring did not allow for making a conclusion whether a missile had been launched from territories south or west of the crash area.
"Satellite images mentioned by the United States and Ukraine might have helped clear up the situation involving missile launches from the areas controlled by the Ukrainian military," he added.
The general has also emphasized that analysis of radar data shows that the missile could not have been launched at Boeing from Snezhnoye in Ukraine's Donetsk region:
"The analysis of primary radar data rejects the claims of the Ukrainian side and conclusions of the technical Dutch investigators the missile that downed the Malaysian Boeing could have been launched from an area of Snezhnoye."
The Ukrainian side has information on the air situation in the area of the MH17 crash both from civilian and military sources, Koban said, adding: "The fact that Ukraine has not made the radar data public allows making suggestions that the launch site of the missile, if this was a Buk missile, was on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces," he stressed.
Radar spotted no other aircraft east of ill-fortunate flight MH17
The deputy chief designer of the Utes-T air route radar, Viktor Meshcheryakov, said Russia’s radar in the community of Ust-Donetsk recorded no other aircraft except for two civilian planes east of the ill-fortunate flight MH17 in the last moments before the Malaysian Boeing fell apart in the air over Donbass in 2014.
"The radar spotted no other aircraft except for two civilian planes," he stated.
The flight path of one of them had crossed that of MH17 long before the disaster, while the other at the moment of the plane’s loss was more than 30 kilometers away.
"As the file is played further on up to the moment of the plane’s destruction we can see there are no other objects anywhere near the Malaysian liner," Meshcheryakov said while demonstrating the radar’s recording.
"The Ust-Donetsk radar identified no other objects that might have caused the plane’s destruction," he stated.
Russian defense ministry says Ukraine has something to hide
It’s no coincidence that Kiev is concealing data that would allow determining the full picture of the MH17 crash in Ukraine in summer 2014, Russia’s Defense Ministry official spokesman Igor Konashenkov believes.
"It’s not by accident that the Ukrainian side is hiding data from the investigators, relatives, victims and the global community that would allow determining the full picture of the crash," Konashenkov said, reminding that the MH17 flight was controlled by the Ukrainian side.
Kiev has not so far made public the information on location of its military surface-to-air units Buk on the day of the crash as well as the talks between flight data controllers, its radar data, the work of Ukraine’s air defense systems and evidence of witnesses, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman reminded.
"It is not accidental that the Ukrainian side conceals from the investigators, the relatives of victims and the world community any information that might have helped to piece together the full picture of the disaster," Konashenkov said.
He recalled that Malaysia’s flight MH17 was on the screens of Ukrainian military radars.
"Up to this day Kiev has not published any information concerning the whereabouts of its Buk missile systems on the day of the disaster, verbal exchanges among air traffic controllers, military ones in the first place, data from its radars, the operation of Ukrainian air defense systems and testimonies by witnesses," Konashenkvo said.
Russia will submit primary radiolocation data that disprove the conclusions on the possible rocket fire on the crashed Boeing to the Dutch side, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman has assured:
"All the information will be handed over to Holland in due course."
The Malaysian Boeing MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. The international commission has come to the conclusion that the aircraft was brought down by the Buk missile. The experts of the Russian arms producer Almaz-Antey have published the results of their own investigation.