Russian media has reportedly been spreading some wild conspiracy theories about the fate of MH17. Now the Russian military has weighed in with a theory of its own.
The military made a colorful 30-minute presentation on the MH17 crash in which it suggested the plane could have been shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. The military presentation was bilingual with every sentence being translated into English in real time. During the presentation the military showed maps of the path of MH17 and then highlighted what it said was a Ukrainian SU-25 which was climbing near the plane’s flight path.
“The distance between SU-25 and Boeing 777 was from 3-5 kilometers. According to its technical characteristics, SU-25 can briefly climb up to 10,000 meters. Regularly it is equipped with air-to-air missile [inaudible] that can capture and destroy targets on the distance up to 12 kilometers and up to 5 kilometers guaranteed. Why did the combat aircraft [inaudible] the same airline with the civil aviation and the same flight level. We would like to find the answer to this question.”
Later in the same briefing the Russian military called on the United
States to release satellite photos of the missile launch that destroyed
MH17 for inspection by the world.
RT, the Kremlin’s English language news channel, has been promoting various conspiracy theories about the crash. On Saturday the network published an op-ed suggesting the downed airliner was a “false flag” operation.