The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that is investigating the MH17 plane crash in eastern Ukraine in 2014 is presenting on Wednesday a preliminary report containing information about the type of a missile that hit the Malaysia Airlines Boeing and the exact launch site.
"Based on the results of the criminal investigation, it may be concluded that flight MH217 was shot was shot down on July 17, 2014, by a 9M38-series missile launched by a BUK trailer and it was brought from the territory of the Russian Federation and after launch subsequently returned to the Russian Federation territory," he told reporters.
According to the official, the investigation believes that the missile was launched by the territory controlled by the Donbas militias, not the regions controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces.
"[We examined the possibility of] Zaroshchenske, because the Russian Ministry of Defense named this place as the possible launch site. We were able to establish that it was not the launch site," Director of the National Criminal Investigation Division of National Police of the Netherlands Wilbert Paulissen told reporters.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) believes that the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 two years ago was launched from a region in eastern Ukraine called Pervomaisk.
"The launch site is the countryside in the Pervomaisk region," Director of the National Criminal Investigation Division of National Police of the Netherlands Wilbert Paulissen told reporters.
He claimed it was "beyond reasonable doubt" that the territory was controlled by pro-independence militia at the time of the launch.
But the Dutch presecutors do not formally link the MH17 crash to Russian State or Russian citizens' actions.
"We have determined that the weapon arrived from Russia. Having established this, we are not making statements about the role of Russia as a state or people from Russia," Westerbeke told reporters.
The JIT's anticipated report was not expected to answer the question of who was responsible for the crash that killed 298 people on July 17, 2014, only the type of missile and the launch site.
Flight MH17 crashed with 298 people on board on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, leaving no survivors. Kiev and independence supporters in Ukraine’s southeast have blamed each other for the downing of the MH17 plane.
Most of the victims were Dutch citizens, and the DSB was chosen to head the international investigation into the incident.
