Police appeal directly to Russian citizens and military for MH17 missile information

Investigators probing the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine, are directing a renewed appeal for information on the missile transporter at Russian civilians and the military. Dutch national police are supporting the appeal by writing to citizens of Kursk, where the anti-aircraft missile brigade which owned the surface-to-air weapon was based. The inquiry has been tracing the Buk missile transporter’s route to the launch site in Ukraine where it was fired at the Boeing 777 in July 2014. “Perhaps you feel that this fact casts a shadow over the reputation of your city or your army,” says the police’s head of the investigation. “But the truth has to be told, even if the truth is inconvenient.” The communication, which refers to historical Dutch-Russian military ties, states that the investigation into the weapon’s movement has reached a “very advanced stage” but is not complete. “We would like to hear from everybody, also from the Russian soldiers, about what really has happened,” it says. “We assume that the crew [of the missile transporter] crossed the border with Ukraine not on its own initiative. Perhaps those persons and their commanders had different perceptions of the situation, and it is just as well possible that there was not enough information.” The police are asking whether the missile was launched by a “fatal error” or “defective material”, or whether the 777 was “downed intentionally”.<br/>