Flight MH17 Report: Plane Shot Down By Russian Military Missile, Investigators Confirm

The missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, was deployed by Russia, an international team of investigators confirmed in a press conference in Utrecht, Netherlands, on Thursday.

In a shocking reveal, Wilbert Paulissen of the Joint Investigations Team said new evidence suggested the Buk missile — used to blow the plane out of the sky, killing all 298 passengers and crew members onboard — originated from the Russian military’s 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the Russian city of Kursk, ABC News reported.

Paulissen added the missile, which had a number showing it was built in 1986 in a factory in Moscow, was transported to Ukraine along with the equipment used to shoot the target. Both the missile and the equipment were snuck back into Russia immediately after the plane was shot down over the conflict zone in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Chief prosecutor for MH17 Peter Westerbeke said the prosecution, if and when it happens, will take place in a Dutch court and they will be willing to hand out reduced sentences in exchange for information.

“Witness protection programs are offered,” Westerbeke said.

Investigation into the MH17’s mysterious shooting had been going on for nearly three years and the team planned to release its findings via a press conference, Thursday.

Russia has maintained they had nothing to do with the downing of the flight that was heading from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was despite the fact that Moscow has been accused in the past of providing military, economic, and political aid to separatists fighting against Kyiv, Ukraine.

Time and again Russia tried to provide theories which would explain how MH17 was shot down to show they had no involvement in it — all of which have been rejected by the investigative team. One of the theories was Capt. Vladyslav Voloshyn, 29, a Ukrainian military pilot shot down the flight.

After complaining about Moscow launching a smear campaign against him, Voloshyn fatally shot himself with a military service pistol inside his Mykolaiv home near the Black Sea in March.

Ukrainian politics expert Bogdan Bezpalko said "one cannot help but think that the other side may have eliminated him as a dangerous witness who could have lifted the veil of secrecy over the downing of MH17, which would subsequently strengthen Russia's position."

Another theory presented by Moscow at the time claimed a Ukrainian Buk missile, which had been moved from Russia into eastern Ukraine, had destroyed the MH17 flight. The Dutch team of investigators and other independent experts refuted the claim saying evidence pointed to a Buk fired by pro-Russian rebels or a Russian military unit — something they reasserted in the findings presented at the press conference.