Friday, July 18, 2014

VIDEO: Pro-Putin Separatists Reportedly Smuggle BUK Missile Launcher Back to Russia — #MH17

I saw the video this morning and wasn't going to blog it, but CNN's been running images from the clip all day, with stop-image graphics showing two of the launcher's missiles gone, presumably having been fired at the Malaysian 777.

And now here comes London's Daily Mail, "Tucked in the corner of a leafy square, is this the Russian missile launcher that blasted flight MH17 out of the sky?"

Also at Toronto's National Post, "After MH17 shot down, video shows Buk missile launcher allegedly being moved from Ukraine to Russia":

Ukraine released a video Friday it says shows the Buk missile launcher used to shoot down a Malaysian Airlines jet being carted toward the Russian border.

The footage was captured by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry claims. In it, one of four of the launcher’s missiles are missing, Ukraine says.

The Buk missile battery is a Soviet-era weapon equipped with a 70-kilogram warhead, designed for taking out cruise missiles, aircraft and drone planes. Usually mounted on a tracked vehicle, it is in use in both Russia and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government in Kyiv, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all denied shooting the plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.

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