Ukrainian CyberBerkut hacktivists claim that they have penetrated the internal network of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and found proof that Kiev is getting secret data from MH17 crash investigators, including information which implies its involvement.
A document, posted on the website cyber-berkut.net, and allegedly downloaded from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry network, dates back to August 7 and appears to be signed by Colonel Igor Zorin, the chief of Ukraine’s air defense forces. It is a report which maintains that a fragment of a projectile found together with the debris of the crashed flight MH17 is in fact a damage agent of a 9M38 surface-to-air guided missile belonging to the mobile air defense complex Buk or Buk M1.
Photo scans allegedly depicting the fragment in question have been also posted.
The document acknowledged that a specific rectangular shape of the fragment pointed out that it could belong to a 9N314 warhead of the 9M38 anti-aircraft missile.
It was suggested that the final conclusion could be made after analyzing the original fragments depicted in the photographs.
CyberBerkut claimed that the documents are evidence that the MH17 crash investigation commission and the Ukraine Defense Ministry have “special relations.”
Meanwhile, Ex-Air Defense deputy chief, military expert Aleksandr Tazekhulakhov told RT that judging by the photo, the fragment is deformed to the extent that it is impossible to independently define its form which is very important for the final conclusion.
“The metal fragment depicted in the photo can’t be identified as part of any ballistic missile warhead. It can be whatever,” he said. Only after several types of tests, such as ballistic, chemical and spectral analysis, can any conclusion be made.
The Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the MH17 crash, released a preliminary report in September stating that the plane “broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.”
Read more:MH17 broke up in mid-air due to external damage - Dutch preliminary report
The commission said that the full report on the catastrophe is set to be released “within a year of the crash,” as the investigators “want to further analyze the data and the wreckage.”
Buk and Buk M1 missile systems were developed by the Soviet Union and entered into service in the late 1970s and in early 1980s.
Earlier this week, a source in Russia’s Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti news agency that after the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of such systems remained in Ukraine and today Kiev possesses no less than 70 Buk M1 systems.
According to open sources, the Russian army operates only Buk-M1-2 and Buk-M2 missile systems – the latest modified versions developed after Ukraine became independent in 1991.
The source also accused Valentin Nalivaichenko, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), of inadvertently leaking that the MH17 Boeing-777-200 crash in July was caused by an outdated missile that only Ukrainian army still operates.
Read more:MH17 crash: Ukraine security chief says missile only Kiev has may be found at crash site
RIA Novosti's source also said that on the day the MH17 was shot down, Ukraine’s 156th SAM regiment carried out an unauthorized missile launch.