RTKiev’s accusations that Russia shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet are “absurd,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
“This is absurd, like all previous accusations from Kiev officials concerning Russia’s Ministry of Defense,” a ministerial official told journalists on Thursday.
Kiev has accused Russia of downing its Su-25 fighter jet on June 16. Andrey Lysenko, spokesman of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said a Russian military jet shot down a plane that was fulfilling a military operation over the east of Ukraine at 19:00 local time. Earlier Kiev blamed the attack on self-defense forces.
On Wednesday, self-defense forces claimed they had shot down two of the Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 fighter jets.
The high-ranked Defense Ministry official said that “almost every day” Russia “gets exposed” and receives threats that “irrefutable evidence” will be released, but every time “this evidence disappears somewhere.”
“And the confusion is being covered with new, more fantastic accusations,” he added.
The Russian official, whose name was not disclosed, criticized Ukraine’s military management for lacking understanding and experience.
“You don’t need to be an expert to understand, after looking at bios of [Ukraine’s] current military management, and especially the ‘anti-terrorist operation’, that these people do not have either military education or practical experience of organized planning and use of troops and weapons,” he said.
Russia’s Security Council also issued a statement of Thursday saying that Moscow is not interested in war with its “brotherly nation.”
“We don’t want war with Ukraine. For us, that would be counterproductive because in that case we would be fighting a brotherly people,” Evgeny Lukyanov, deputy secretary of the body that advises President Vladimir Putin on security told RIA Novosti.
“War with Ukraine is not in our interest. It is our border, our family relations and our economic ties. It is a big problem for us and we don’t see any way out other than a political one.”
The Security Council said a war in eastern Ukraine entered a “stage of ethnic cleansing,” referring to the Russian-speaking population in the region.
“There is not a civil war in Ukraine, but an ethnic cleansing of the Russian-speaking population of the southeast of this country,” Lukyanov said.
On Thursday, another Ukrainian plane has been reportedly shot down in eastern Ukraine.
“About 4pm local time [13:00 GMT] an An-26 was flying over the city. We saw a rocket hitting it, there was an explosion, the jet started falling leaving a black spoke behind,” a resident told RIA Novosti.
Some very well-informed comments/sources from the Vineyard Saker:
“DONETSK, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Civil flights in the air space of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions cannot be performed as the relevant communications infrastructure was destroyed there, a source from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.
“Kiev operates all air traffic control services and it is unclear how this plane (the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border Thursday night. — ITAR-TASS) could appear in the area,” he said.
“During the combat actions in Donetsk’s airport the communication tower, a part of the united air control service was blown up,” he said adding that “planes cannot fly there.”
On July 8, Ukraine’s State Aviation Service banned all flights over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions aiming to provide “adequate safety and security for all flights of civil aircraft in favor of state aviation.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council took a decision to close the airspace over the area of the so-called anti-terror operation to commercial flights three days ago, Rosaviatsia (Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency) reported.”
“MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) – A Ukrainian army battalion of Buk air defense systems was deployed near the city of Donetsk a day before the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane on Thursday, making the downing of the aircraft by one of the missiles highly probable, an expert source said.
“According to reconnaissance data, a Ukrainian army battalion of Buk air defense systems was deployed near Donetsk on Wednesday morning,” the source said.”
Yonatan says: “If it was MH17 that was shot down over Torez, it was 200 km north of its published route. It doesn’t fly over the eastern land border between Ukraine and Russia. it crosses the crosses the Ukrainian coast at Berdyansk to fly over the Sea of Azov towards Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
What time was it allegedly shot down? How come it disappeared from trackers in west Ukraine and and appears to have traveled about 1000 km into eastern Ukraine some 200 km off route without being challenged by Ukrainian authorities?
Hmmm very odd, in the time taken to send my earlier message and to compose this update, FlightAware’s data has been updated to show the aircraft in East Ukraine. Fortunately I have earlier screenshots of both before and after FlightAware data.
A new data entry for 2:19 puts it at 48.1N 38.5E roughly around Donestk / Torez. There is no data for the intervening hour. Why was it so far off route? What was the reason for the lack of tracking data? All the earlier MH17 flights I have checked route even further south.”
The Ziopresstitutes are quick with accusations. Short on facts.
“Moscow: Kiev allegations that Russian jet downed Ukraine plane absurd”
Beyond absurd, actually.