MH17 – Potential Suspects and Witnesses from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade A bell¿ngcat Investigation

MH17 – Potential Suspects and Witnesses from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade

Introduction

In a previous report, Origin of the Separatists’ Buk, 1 the Bellingcat investigation team described the movements of a Buk-M1 missile launcher in Ukraine, which was filmed and photographed in Donetsk, Zuhres, Torez, Snizhne, and Luhansk on 17 July 2014, the day Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was downed. That report provided evidence supporting the hypothesis that this particular Buk-M1 was likely responsible for downing MH17 for two primary reasons: first, it was in range of MH17 shortly before it was downed; second, a missile was missing from the Buk the morning following the downing.

Origin of the Separatists’ Buk also described two separate military convoys filmed and photographed in Russia from 23 to 25 June and from 19 to 21 July 2014. These convoys transported Buk-M1 missile launchers along with numerous other types of military vehicles from an area near Kursk to an area near the Russia-Ukraine border in the Rostov Oblast2 . One Buk-M1 missile launcher in the 23-25 June 2014 convoy is particularly noteworthy, because it shares many common features with the BukM1 that was located within firing range of MH17 and was filmed on 17 July 2014 driving toward the center of an area that was assessed by the Dutch Safety Board to be the launch area of the Buk missile that downed MH17 in Ukraine.3 An examination of the vehicles and license plates of the military convoys in the summer of 2014 reveals that these convoys originated at a military base near Kursk, just west of the village Marshala Zhukova, where the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (military Unit 32406) is based. Soldiers of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade posted images of vehicles seen in the June and July 2014 convoys, as well as photographs of the June 2014 convoy itself, on social media sites such as VKontakte4 (or VK, a popular Russian social network akin to Facebook), Odnoklassniki5 (or OK, a Russian social media site more popular with older generations), and Instagram. In addition to pictures of vehicles, some soldiers posted images of military certificates showing the completion of what can be presumed to be a military exercise that took place between 22 June 2014 and 25 July 2014.

The present report conducts a deeper investigation into the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, its organizational structure and placement in the Russian army, and the military vehicles involved in the June and July 2014 Buk convoys. This report also describes the results of a thorough investigation of soldiers and officers of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade related to the convoys and/or other military operations in the summer of 2014. If the Buk crew consisted of Russian soldiers and officers, it is likely that some number of these soldiers and officers knew the crew members of the Buk missile launcher involved in the MH17 tragedy, or were possibly crew members themselves. Additionally, this report confirms that the certificates mentioned above belong to students of a technical university who completed a training course at the base of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade near Kursk. Some officers can be exculpated from involvement in any of the Buk convoys because cadets from two universities posted pictures of these officers in their photo albums at the base of the 53rd AntiAircraft Missile Brigade in the summer of 2014.

Download the report: https://www.bellingcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/53rd-report-public.pdf