Ukraine Says Multiple Buk Missile Systems Moved to Russia — #MH17

At the Los Angeles Times:

Three Buk missile systems made their way from eastern Ukraine across the border into Russia on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials, including one lacking the missile they believe brought down a Malaysia Airlines jet the day before. “

Three missile launchers trespassed the Ukraine border on July 18,” Vitaly Nayda, Ukraine’s counterintelligence chief, told reporters in Kiev on Saturday afternoon.

The announcement came a day after a government advisor posted a video purportedly showing a single Buk system, with at least one missile missing, making the trip to Russia on a road in eastern Ukraine. The new disclosure suggests that the Russian government supplied multiple anti-aircraft systems to the separatists, which Nayda said were also used to bring down two Ukrainian military transport planes earlier in the week. The systems crossed the border at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Friday, Nayda said.

If the Ukrainian government claims are confirmed, it would serve as strong evidence that Russia provided help to separatists to shoot down planes in eastern Ukraine.

Nayda added that, according to his country’s intelligence, Russian military officers accompanied the units on their move across the border.

“We documented negotiations between terrorists and got information from those conversations that three Russian personnel came with it,” he said. “There were Russian citizens operating the Buk-M1 and they came from territory of the Russian Federation.”

More.