Amsterdam – The International investigators examining the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, discovered the end-piece of a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile at the wreckage site.
The Dutch prosecutor’s office on Monday in Amsterdam presented a picture of the piece on its website.
It explained on the picture that “Venturi is located at the bottom side of the Buk missile and emits the gases from the propellant, similar to the exhaust of a car.
MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in rebel-controlled territory on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board.
The prosecution didn’t provide further details on who it thinks fired the missile.
The Dutch Safety Board concluded in October, after 15 months of investigating, that a Buk surface-to-air missile was used to shoot down the airliner.
Tjibbe Joustra, the Board’s Head, said at the time that the missile came from an area under the control of pro-Russian rebels.
In response, high-ranking Russian officials fended off the allegations that pro-Russian rebels were responsible for shooting down the plane.
They said the Dutch-led investigation failed to disprove Russia’s evidence that the airliner could have been shot down by the Ukrainian military.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia have sunk to an all-time low since Ukraine ousted its former pro-Russian president in 2014 during mass protests calling for closer ties with the West.
Soon afterwards, Russia occupied and annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula, and a pro-Russian separatist rebellion broke out in Ukraine’s two eastern-most regions. (dpa/NAN)
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