In Torez,
some say missile's journey through town has been a hot topic but people are
scared of talking to outsiders
 |
An image of
what is believed to be a Buk surface-to-air missile battery
near Torez last
Thursday. Photograph: EMPR/Barcroft Media
|
Claims by
pro-Russia separatists in east Ukraine that they have never been in possession
of the missile launcher apparently used to down flight MH17 are looking
increasingly flimsy, as several witnesses told the Guardian they had seen what
appeared to be a Buk missile launcher in the vicinity of the crash site last
Thursday.
The
sightings back up a number of photographs and videos posted online that put the
Buk system close to the crash site on the day of the disaster. Just before
lunchtime last Thursday, prior to the Malaysia Airlines plane's takeoff, a Buk
was driven through Gagarin Street, one of the central thoroughfares of Torez,
witnesses said.
Torez would
later be the town where bodies of the victims were loaded on to refrigerated
train cars. The tarmac on Gagarin Street is strewn with ruts made by tank
treads, and locals say armoured vehicles controlled by separatists driving
through the town have become a regular occurrence in recent weeks. The convoy
last Thursday was different, however.
"We
were inside and heard a noise much louder than usual," said one
shopkeeper, who did not want to be identified. "We came running out and
saw a jeep disappearing into the distance with something much larger in front
of it. Later, customers said it had been a missile carrier."
In another
shop further down the street, there was talk of a convoy of two jeeps and a
missile launcher covered in a net driving past in the direction of the town of
Snizhne. "I've never seen anything like it," said a middle-aged
woman. She said her husband showed her a photograph of a Buk launcher
afterwards and she realised that was indeed what she had seen. A group of men
also said they had seen a Buk.
There have
been suggestions that the missile was fired from fields on the outskirts of
Snizhne. Many in Torez did not want to speak about the Buk or claimed not to
have heard anything about it. Others said the missile's journey through the
town had been a talking point in recent days, but people were scared of
divulging too much to outsiders. None of those who reported sightings of the
Buk wanted their names published.
Armed
rebels at a checkpoint outside the entrance to Snizhe were turning away cars
with journalists on Tuesday, saying they had received orders not to let the
press into the town.
Ukrainian
intelligence has suggested that the missile launcher was provided by Russia and
taken back across the border after the deadly attack on MH17. "It is most
likely that the machinery which fired the missiles at Malaysian aircraft will
be destroyed and the people who committed the act of terror will be
annihilated," said Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior
minister.
Russia has
denied giving the rebels a Buk launcher, and suggested the Ukrainian army had a
number of Buk systems in the vicinity. They have also claimed that a Ukrainian
fighter jet was in the vicinity of MH17 at the time of the crash.
The
self-styled prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai,
again denied that the rebels were responsible for the crash in a statement to
the press in the early hours of Tuesday morning, before he handed the flight's
black box recorders to a visiting Malaysian delegation. Ukraine had the
"technical ability and the motive" to carry out the attack while the
rebels had neither, he said.
However,
the rebels had downed a number of Ukrainian planes in the area in recent weeks,
and while the presence of the Buk in rebel-controlled territory on the day of
the crash does not prove that rebels launched the missile, it does show they
are lying about not having any of the systems under their control.
US
officials have said they have satellite evidence that a missile was launched at
MH17 from the region of Snizhne last Thursday, and were due to make the
evidence public later on Tuesday.
 |
Alexander
Khodakovsky in Donetsk. 'That Buk I know about … They probably sent
it back in
order to remove proof of its presence,' he said. Photograph: Maxim
Zmeyev/Reuters
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.