MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The Buk surface-to-air missile that downed the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) aircraft in 2014 had been delivered to the 223rd Air Defense Missile Brigade of the Carpathian Military District after being manufactured in 1986 and had not returned to Russia aferward, Lieut. Gen. Nikolai Parshin, the chief of the Russian Defense Ministry Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate, said on Monday.
"The missile with the side number 886847379 designed for the Buk air defense missile system was transported by rail to military unit 20152 on December 29, 1986. It is known for certain that this military unit received the missile, on which an acceptance certificate was drawn up. The actual name of this military unit is the 223rd Air Defense Missile Brigade of the Carpathian Military District, stationed in the Ternopil region. After the Soviet Union's breakup, it was not transferred anywhere [outside Ukraine]," Parshin told journalists on Monday.