The men ‘who shot down MH17’: Investigators charge three Russians and a Ukrainian with MURDER

Admin Wed 19 Jun 2019, 11:44 am

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7157233/MH17-investigators-four-suspects-including-Russian-officers-today.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small
The men ‘who shot down MH17’: Investigators charge three Russians and a Ukrainian with MURDER after accusing them of shooting down passenger jet, killing all 298 on board
Investigators named four men they say are responsible for MH17 shoot-down
They include three Russians and one Ukrainian who were in eastern Ukraine
All four will be charged with murder, the Joint Investigation Team has said
MH17 was shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile fired by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew
By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 07:50, 19 June 2019 | UPDATED: 12:24, 19 June 201
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Four men who international investigators believe are responsible for shooting down MH17 have been named and will be charged with murder.

The men are Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, all of whom were fighting for Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine when the jet was shot down over the territory in 2014.

Girkin is a former FSB agent who has fought in a number of Russian proxy-conflicts, Dubinsky is another Russian ex-intelligence officer, Pulatov is a former lieutenant colonel in the Russian army, while Kharchenko is the commander of a Ukrainian separatist battalion.

Researchers from the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team identified the men during a press conference Wednesday, after earlier briefing the families of MH17 victims.

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Igor Girkin +7
Sergey Dubinsky +7
Igor Girkin (left) and Sergey Dubinsky (right), both Russian ex-intelligence officers, have been named by international investigators as two of the men responsible for shooting down MH17

Oleg Pulatov +7
Leonid Kharchenko +7
Oleg Pulatov, a Russian ex-army officer, and Leonid Kharchenko, the Ukrainian commander of separatist rebels in the country's east, have also been identified

A pro-Russian separatist stands at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 +7

The reconstructed wreckage of MH17 is presented to the media by Dutch investigators back in 2015 +7

The development comes a year after the same team concluded that the missile which shot down the plane came from a Russian military brigade based in Kursk.

Elsewhere, open-source intelligence community Bellingcat published its own research identifying a dozen individuals - including the four named above - which it says were involved in the shoot-down of the jet.

For the first time Bellingcat claimed to have established what role the men played in shooting down the jet, as well as a command-tree linking them together - with Girkin sitting at the top.

MH17 was shot out of the sky in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

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Of those killed, 196 were Dutch and another 38 were Australian. Passengers from Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine were also killed.

Once the names and charges have been announced, the next step would be to attempt to put the accused on trial.

Russia is not expected to surrender any potential suspects who may be on its territory and authorities have said individuals could be tried in absentia.

The Joint Investigation Team, which seeks to try the suspects under Dutch law, has said the missile system came from the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade, based in the western Russian city of Kursk.

MH17 taking off from Amsterdam's Schipol airport just 24 hours before it was shot down over Ukraine +7

Russia has insisted that the missile was fired by Kiev's forces, and that the weapon was sent to Ukraine by the Soviets and was never returned to Russia.

Dutch officials have said they would looking into the allegations, but noted that previous information given by Moscow has been proved incorrect and that generally speaking Russia has been uncooperative with the investigation.

The Joint Investigation Team was formed in 2014 by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine to investigate collaboratively.

The Netherlands and Australia, which lost 38 people, hold Russia legally responsible.

Moscow denies all involvement and maintains that it does not support, financially or with equipment, pro-Russian rebels fighting Ukrainian government troops.
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