LONDON. June 19 (Interfax) - Investigative journalism website Bellingcat has publicized the names and other personal details of 12 people who, as it claims, are responsible directly or indirectly for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in Donbas in June 2014.
The site said it came to these conclusions after analyzing intercepts of radio exchanges and phone calls in the area not under Kyiv's control in 2014, which have been publicized by the Ukrainian Security Service and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) led by the Netherlands.
Bellingcat said in its report that Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), was responsible for the MH17 crash, as "most of the separatists who can be linked to the downing of MH17 were his subordinates," and therefore it is likely that he was "fully aware of the procurement and import of the Buk [anti-aircraft missile system] from Russia."
Another man mentioned in the report is Valery Stelmakh, who "reported the spotting of MH17 as an enemy aircraft" shortly before it was downed.
The website's report additionally mentions Sergei Dubinsky (call sign Khmury), who headed the DPR's military intelligence service (GRU) at the time, and his subordinate Oleg Pulatov (call signs Gyurza and Khalif) as people likely responsible for downing the MH17. In particular, the report says Dubinsky "requested the delivery of a battle-ready Buk missile launcher" and was later "involved in the removal of the Buk back to Russia following the downing of MH17." As for Pulatov, Bellingcat claims that he was "likely involved in securing the Buk missile launcher at the launch site south of Snizhne."
The report also mentions one Leonid Kharchenko (call sign Krot) as a man who played an important role in transporting the Buk launcher. Bellingcat said Kharchenko, as commander of a reconnaissance battalion of the 2nd Department of the GRU DPR, was "involved in the securing of the Buk missile launcher near the launch site south of Snizhne."
Eduard Gilyazov (call sign Ryazan), a "separatist commander," was found to have "brought a member of the Buk crew who had lost the rest of the crew to his commander Leonid Kharchenko" after the downing of the MH17, the report says.
Another man who "was very likely present at the launch site" is Oleg Sharpov (call sign Zmey), it said.
Bellingcat also mentions the so-called Bezler Group, named after Igor Bezler (call sign Bes), a former Russian military officer. His voice was recognized on a telephone call intercept, in which he instructs his subordinate to report information on an aircraft approaching them "upwards', and as such may have facilitated the spotting of MH17 as an enemy aircraft."
The website also refers to Sergei Povalyayev (call sign Botsman) as a deputy commander of the Bezler Group in the context of an intercepted phone call between him and Dubinsky, in which the latter says that "he received a Buk-M" and that "they just shot down a 'Sushka' (a Sukhoi aircraft). Aside from how 'Botsman' was Bezler's deputy, there is no direct link between 'Botsman' and the downing of MH17," it said.
Bellingcat also mentions Igor Ukrainets (call sign Minyor) as a subordinate to Bezler. It says, however, that the group "found no evidence that suggests Ukrainets was involved in the downing of MH17."
Another man named by Bellingcat in the context of the MH17 crash is Alexander Khodakovsky (call sign Skif), the commander of the Vostok Battalion and former security minister of the DPR. It says that, after the plane was downed, Khodakovsky "admitted in an interview with Reuters that he knew beforehand that pro-Russian separatists were going to receive a Buk missile launcher that would be transported from Luhansk to Snizhne, but he later retracted these statements saying that they were taken out of context."
Bellingcat concludes its report on the persons who, as it claims, played the role in the MH17 crash with mentioning Alexander Semyonov (call sign San Sanych), a deputy commander of the Vostok Battalion, who supposedly "helped facilitate the arrival of the Buk in Donetsk."
Bellingcat said it analyzed only information from open sources.
"While this information gleaned from digital sources greatly informs our understanding of the persons of interest around the downing of MH17, there is more to discover and understand, as digital sources can only shed light on what can be found online," Bellingcat said.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed. On October 13 2015, the Dutch Safety Board commission, which investigated the crash, concluded that the plane was downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile.
A report circulated by the JIT in May 2018 said the missile that downed the MH17 could have been transported from a Russian military unit stationed near Kursk.
Russia has categorically denied the claims of its responsibility for the MH17 crash.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in May questioned Russia's role in the MH17 crash in Ukraine due to a lack of incontrovertible evidence.