THE RUSSIAN military announced yesterday that they detected a Ukrainian fighter jet flying alongside the Malaysian passenger jet before it crashed.
The Russian military said that it was a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet and that it was gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane.
Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the HQ of Russia’s military forces, Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartopolov said: ‘A Ukraine Air Force military jet was detected gaining height, it’s distance from the Malaysian Boeing was three to 5km.
‘We would like to get an explanation as to why the military jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same time and at the same level as a passenger plane.
‘The SU-25 fighter jet can gain an altitude of 10km, according to its specification,’ he added. It’s equipped with air-to-air R-60 missiles that can hit a target at a distance up to 12km, up to 5km for sure.’
The presence of the Ukrainian military jet can be confirmed by video shots made by the Rostov monitoring centre, Kartopolov stated.
At the moment of the MH17 crash an American satellite was flying over the area of eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry. It urged the US to publish the space photos and data captured by it.
In addition, MH17 crashed within the operating zone of the Ukrainian army’s self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air ‘Buk’ missile systems, the Russian general said.
‘We have space images of certain places where the Ukraine’s air Defence was located in the southeast of the country,’ Kartapolov noted.
Meanwhile yesterday morning six missiles fired from a Ukrainian fighter bomber exploded at Donetsk railway terminal, killing three people.
Ukrainian troops launched a vicious ground assault on the city of Donetsk with armoured vehicles and infantry using heavy fire power to attempt to cut through defenses next to the central railway terminal.
Ukrainian troops, equipped with tanks and armoured vehicles, attempted to break into the People’s Republic of Donetsk, a city of approximately 950,000 people.
The fighting took place in several spots simultaneously. The fiercest fire fight was near the Donetsk airport, currently held by Kiev coupist forces.
Minister of Defence of the People’s Republic of Donetsk Igor Strelkov said that units of the Ukrainian army launched attacks against the communities of Avdeevka, Peski, Karlovka and Netailovo.
He said: ‘The advancing tanks and motorised infantry on APCs are supported by artillery, howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems. We’re fighting a battle!’
The city of Donetsk has effectively been under siege for days now and all supplies from central Ukraine have been suspended. There is no shortage of food in the shops so far, but stocks are expected to dwindle. The same applies to medical supplies in local chemists.
The worst situation is in Kuibyshev district, where all shops and firms are shut and the mobile phone network is down. There have been reports of water shortages in certain districts of the city.
• The coupists who seized power in Kiev are facing a financial meltdown.
The hole in Kiev’s budget has now grown to 3.2 billion hryvnas ($274 million), up from 2.3 billion hryvnas in the first half of the year.
Kiev’s mayoral adviser Igor Nikonov said: ‘The Finance Ministry initially put indicators that raised concerns. Everybody expected income tax to increase up to 15 per cent, but it didn’t happen and the growth was at just 5.5 per cent that is one billion hryvnas deficit in the budget,’ he added.
The Kiev Finance Ministry has now forecast the country’s economy to slump by six to 6.5 per cent in 2014, and inflation to reach 19 per cent.
