Perspectief 2019-44

2019-44 Thema - Oekraïne – katalysator van kerkelijke en politieke spanningen Prof. dr. Cyril Hovorun 107 Ukrainian government fully collaborated with the team, while the Russian government re- fused to offer the same full support to the investigation. In May 2018, the JIT finished its investigation, and the government of the Netherlands announced its conclusions. It confirmed what has been the main version of the events since July 2014. Namely that the plane was shot by the sophisticated Russian military anti- aircraft missile system Buk. It was brought from Russia to the Ukrainian territory controlled by the separatists, downed the plane, and then brought back to Russia. The Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok made a statement after the JIT finished its investiga- tion: “On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are now convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation that was used to down MH17. The government is now taking the next step by formally holding Russia accountable.” 10 The head of the crime squad of the Dutch national police Wilbert Paulissen added more details to the statement. He stated that the JIT “has come to the conclusion that the Buk TELAR by which MH17 was downed originated from the 53rd Anti- Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk, in the Russian Federation.” 11 The Russians, nevertheless, continued denying their involvement and instead propagated their own versions about how the MH17 was shot. The bottom line of all of these versions is that it is Ukraine, which should be blamed for the incident. The Russian officials, for instance, suggested that MH17 was targeted by the Ukrainian military aircrafts SU-25 or MiG-29. This claim was immediately rejected by specialists, because these aircrafts cannot attack targets that high in the sky. The evidence that the Russians brought was soon proven to be fabricated. 12 9. Who is to blame? The official investigation established how the MH17 was downed, but it did not say any- thing about why the plane was targeted by the Russians. There are two basic versions about this. The most probable one is that the Russians targeted a military Ukrainian air- craft, which they confused with the civil one. Indeed, from May to July 2014, the Russians downed a number of Ukrainian military vessels, including four helicopters (Mi-24 on May 2 and 5, Mi-8 on May 29, and Mi-8 on June 24) and three planes (AN-30 on June 6, IL-76