Preamble: The original BBC Video Report was
published by BBC Russian Service on July 23, 2014.
Why did BBC delete
this report by Olga Ivshina? Is it because the BBC team was unable to
find any evidence that a rocket was launched in the area that the
Ukrainian Security Service (“SBU”) alleges to be the place from which
the Novorossiya Militia launched a “BUK” missile?
Or is it because every eyewitness interviewed by the BBC team
specifically indicated the presence of Ukrainian military aircraft right
beside the Malaysian Airlines Boeing MH17 at the time that it was shot
down?
Or is it because of eyewitness accounts (like the one posted
following the transcript of the BBC report) confirming that the
Ukrainian air force regularly used civilian aircraft flying over
Novorossiya as human shields to protect its military aircraft conducting
strikes against civilian population from the Militia’s anti-aircraft
units?
In the last part [video] of this entry Elena predicts that the Ukrainian
military will stage the horrible catastrophe like the MH17 crash – she
makes this prediction one whole month prior to the disaster.
Introductory Paragraphs to the BBC Video Report
The “black boxes” of the crashed Malaysian Boeing have finally been
transferred into the hands of the experts. However, how much can they
tell us?
The recorders logged the coordinates and the heading of the aircraft
at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the
explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the
explosion.
The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw
military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe. According
to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.
The Ukrainian government rejects this version of events. They believe
that the Boeing was shot down using a missile from a “BUK” complex that
came in from Russia.
The Ukrainian Security Service has published photographs and a video,
which, in its opinion, prove that the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK”
missile.
BBC reporter Olga Ivshina and producer Oksana Vozhdayeva decided to
find the place from which the missile was allegedly launched.
Transcript of the BBC Video Report
DPR Representative: Here it is.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The black boxes from the crashed
Boeing are finally being transferred into the hands of the experts.
However, how much can they tell us?
The recorders logged the coordinates and the heading of the aircraft
at the time of the incident and may have recorded the sound of the
explosion. However, they will not tell us what exactly caused the
explosion.
The inhabitants of the nearby villages are certain that they saw
military aircraft in the sky shortly prior to the catastrophe. According
to them, it actually was the jet fighters that brought down the Boeing.
Eyewitness #1: There were two explosions in the air.
And this is how it broke apart. And [the fragments] blew apart like
this, to the sides. And when …
Eyewitness #2: … And there was another aircraft, a military one, beside it. Everybody saw it.
Eyewitness #1: Yes, yes. It was flying under it, because it could be seen. It was proceeding underneath, below the civilian one.
Eyewitness #3: There were sounds of an explosion.
But they were in the sky. They came from the sky. Then this plane made a
sharp turn-around like this. It changed its trajectory and headed in
that direction [indicating the direction with her hands].
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian government rejects
this version of events. They believe that the Boeing was shot down using
a missile from a “BUK” complex that came in from the direction of
Russia.
Vitaliy Naida, Department of Counterintelligence of SBU [Ukrainian Security Service]: This was a BUK M1 system from which the aircraft was shot down. It came to Ukraine early in the morning on the 17th
of July. It was delivered by a tow truck to the city of Donetsk. After
that, it was redeployed from Donetsk, as part of a column of military
equipment, to the area of the city of Torez, to the area of Snezhnoye,
to the area of Pervomaisk.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The Ukrainian Security Service
has published photographs and a video, which, in its opinion, prove that
the Boeing was shot down with a “BUK” missile. We attempted to verify
these photographs and information at the location.
One of the photographs showed a landscape not far from the city of
Torez, on which smoke could be seen coming from the presumed location of
the missile’s launch. We attempted to find this location, and it
appears that we were successful.
We are now on the outskirts of the city of Torez. Behind me,
approximately five kilometres away, is the city of Snezhnoye. And the
landscape here matches the landscape that we can see on the photograph
published by the Ukrainian Security Service.
To find the place from which the smoke was allegedly coming from, we
adopted as markers these three poplars and the group of trees.
Presumably, this is the place that can be seen on the photograph
published by the SBU. And here are our markers: the three solitary
poplars and the small group of trees in the distance.
The smoke that can be seen on the photograph came from somewhere over
there [pointing behind her], behind my back. The SBU believes that this
is a trace coming from the launch of a “BUK” missile.
However, it must be noted that there are here, approximately in the
same place, the Saur-Mogila memorial, near which the fighting continues
almost unabated, and a coalmine. It turns out that the smoke with the
same degree of probability could have been coming from any of these locations.
Having circled around the nearby fields, we were unable to find any
traces of a missile launch. Nor did the local inhabitants that we
encountered see any “BUK” either.
At the ruins of an apartment building in the city of Snezhnoye, the
topic of the jet fighters that may have been escorting civilian aircraft
comes up again. A bomb dropped from above took away the lives of eleven
civilians here.
Sergey Godovanets, Commander of the Militia of the city of Snezhnoye:
They use these civilian aircraft to hide behind them. It is only now
that they stopped flying over us – but, usually, civilian aircraft would
always fly above us. And they hide [behind them]. [The experience in]
Slavyansk had demonstrated that they would fly out from behind a
civilian aircraft, bomb away, and then hide, once again, behind the
civilian aircraft and fly away.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: The commander of the local
militia emphasizes that they have no weaponry capable of shooting down a
jet fighter [flying] at a significant height. However, he says that if
such weaponry were to appear, they would have tried to.
Sergey Godovanets: If we know that it is not a civilian aircraft, but a military one, then – yes.
Olga Ivshina, BBC: So, could the Boeing have been
shot down by the militias that had mistaken it for a military aircraft?
There is as yet no unequivocal confirmation of either this or any other
version [of what took place]. The international experts are just
beginning their work with the information obtained from the crashed
airliner. It now appears that it is difficult to overstate the
importance of this investigation. Olga Ivshina, BBC.