KIEV, Ukraine A Dutch-led investigation team said Wednesday that the surface-to-air missile that downed a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard, came from Russia and was fired from territory held by pro-Moscow separatists.
Investigators stopped short of directly accusing Russia of complicity in the attack on the Malaysia Airlines jet, and declined to name any suspects publicly. Both Russia and the rebels in Ukraine deny any role in the July 2014 attack on Flight 17, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
The SA-11 Gadfly system thought to be used in the missile firing four surface-to-air missiles mounted on a launch vehicle was smuggled into Ukraine from Russia just hours before the missile was fired, the investigators said at a news conference in Amsterdam. The system, also known as a BUK trailer, was returned to Russia the day after the attack, which left bodies and wreckage strewn across farms and fields of sunflowers.
The evidence was based on intercepted telephone conversations between separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine, as well as open-source photographs and satellite data, investigators said.
The team members said that they had identified more than 100 people linked to the transport of the missile system and that they would seek to identify who ordered the plane to be shot down. The investigation has been extended into 2018.
