Dutch-led investigators have named four Russian-backed separatists as their first suspects for the shooting down in 2014 of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over east Ukraine. The other suspects named, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko, were members of the separatists’ military intelligence unit. Identified as Khmury on intercepted phone calls, he directed subordinates to move the Buk missile along with tanks heading to support the militia’s fighters. Pulatov was born in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, is a veteran of the Afghanistan and Chechen wars and left the Russian military in 2008. He served under the three other suspects and was suspected of handling the Buk missile and arranging for its transport.

Source: The Guardian June 19, 2019 13:30 UTC