Newsweek
Russian media claim UK behind downed plane carrying Ukrainian POWs
Ria Novosti and others say ‘informed source’ close to events insists Britain pressured Ukrainian military to fire missile without checking identity of aircraft
Russian news agencies have claimed that an ‘informed source familiar with the situation’ has told it that pressure from UK military advisers in Kiev was responsible for the 24 January Ukrainian missile that brought down a Russian IL-76 aircraft carrying sixty-five Ukrainian prisoners to a prisoner exchange, along with three Russian officers and six crew members. All were killed.
Ria says that its source – it does not state whether it is a Russian, Ukrainian or British whistleblower – told it that:
The attack on the Il-76 was carried out under pressure from British advisers without the consent of the air defense headquarters in Kyiv and additional verification of information about the movement of aircraft over the Belgorod region.
Russia has claimed that US MIM-104A ‘Patriot’ missiles caused the crash.
US magazine Newsweek has carried the story, but the UK ‘mainstream’ media have ignored it, as they did Seymour Hersh’s investigation last year that concluded that the US was behind the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines that triggered an energy crisis in the UK and Europe.
Calls have been made for an international investigation, but so far nothing has been announced, at least publicly.
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