The Ukrainian military has several batteries of Buk surface-to-air missile systems with at least 27 launchers, capable of bringing down high-flying jets, in the Donetsk region where the Malaysian passenger plane crashed, Russian Defense Ministry said.
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“According to the Russian Defense Ministry information, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine located in the crash-site are equipped with anti-aircraft missile systems of "Buk-M1” ... These complexes in their tactical and technical characteristics are capable of detecting air targets at ranges of up to 160 kilometers and hit them at full altitude range at a distance of over 30 kilometers,” the ministry’s statement reads as cited by Ria.
Earlier, Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies were citing a source familiar with the issue, who said that another battery of Buk systems is currently being prepared for shipment to Donetsk region from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov.
The Donetsk region remains the scene of heavy fighting between government troops and the forces of the opposition, which refused to recognize the regime change in Kiev and demand federalization.
A Malaysian Airlines aircraft en route from Amsterdam to Malaysia crashed in Eastern Ukraine – not far from the Russian border – on Thursday.
There were reportedly 283 people and 15 crew members on board the
Boeing-777 plane, who reportedly all died in the crash.
There were unconfirmed reports the Malaysian plane was travelling
at an altitude of over 10,000 meters when it was allegedly hit by
a missile.
There’s no way that the self-defense forces in Donetsk Region are
in possession of such complex weaponry, he stressed. Only S-300
and Buk surface-to-air missile systems are capable of hitting
targets at such altitude, the source said.
Buk is a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air
missile systems developed by the former USSR and Russia to engage
targets at an engagement altitude of 11,000-25,000 meters
depending on the model.
Chances are high that the Malaysian plane was really downed by
the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, Yury Karash, pilot and
aviation expert, told RT.
“A Boeing-777 is an extremely reliable piece of machinery. Modern
planes don’t just crash with no reason,” he said. “Let
us recall how a Ukrainian missile downed Russian TU-154 aircraft
ten years ago. I can’t completely exclude the possibility the
Boeing-777 was also hit by a missile.”
“I don’t know who could’ve shot it down. But I can allege
that it was most likely the Ukrainian armed forces: simply
because its military – anti-aircraft defense, in particular –
are, unfortunately, unqualified. As judging by the overall state
of the Ukrainian armed forces, insufficient attention has been
paid to their training,” Karash added.
Reports in the Western media hurried to blame the self-defense
forces of the People’s Republic of Donetsk for bringing the plane
down.
The claims were denied by the representatives of the Donetsk
People’s Republic, saying that it’s the Ukrainian military, which
destroyed the aircraft.
“We simply don’t have such air defense systems. Our man-portable
air defense systems have a firing range 3,000 - 4,000 meters. The
Boeing was flying at a much higher altitude,” Sergey
Kavtaradze, special representative for the prime minister of the
Donetsk People’s Republic, explained.
Kavtaradze also expressed condolences to the relatives of all of
those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
IHS Jane’s Defense analyst, Nick de Larrinaga, also shared the
belief that the self-defense forces lack the capability to bring
the Malaysian plane down.
“At normal cruising altitude a civilian passenger aircraft would
be out of the range of the sort of manned portable air (defense)
systems that we have seen proliferate in rebel hands in east
Ukraine,” he said in a statement.
But the aircraft would be within range of Buk or other
medium-range surface-to-air missile systems, he stressed.
“Both Russia and Ukraine have such SAM systems in their
inventories,” the expert added.
It seems unlikely that the self-defense forces could’ve used Buk
surface-to-air missile systems to down the Malaysian plane,
retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan, the director of the Defense and
Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs, said.
“It takes a lot of training and a lot of coordination to fire one
of these and hit something,” he told CNN. “This is not
the kind of weapon a couple of guys are going to pull out of a
garage and fire.”
According to Ryan, if the plane was really taken down then it was
done by a professional military force.