MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - Donetsk politician Andrei Purgin has described allegations of involvement of the persons named by investigative journalism website Bellingcat in the crash of Malaysia Airlines' MH17 flight in Donbas in 2014 as absurd.
"People on this list were related to the defense of Donbas at different periods of time, but they were not interconnected, had different missions, and were even geographically situated far from one another. They could bear no relation to air defense," Purgin, who served as head of the People's Council and deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in 2014, told Interfax.
For instance, Sergei Dubinsky was supervising internal security and counterintelligence, but had nothing to do with the frontline and did not go there, Purgin said.
Additionally, the militia never had Buk air defense missile systems and it was not possible to receive them from the neighboring state. "There are no specialists capable of operating such systems in Donetsk," Purgin said.