Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board said on Tuesday in its final report on the July 2014 crash that killed all 298 aboard.
The long-awaited findings of the board, which was not empowered to address questions of responsibility, did not specify who launched the missile.
Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk said he had no doubt the plane was shot down by Russian special forces because “drunken separatists” could not have operated the missile.
Mr Yatseniuk made his charge shortly before publication of the Dutch Safety Board’s final report.
“In our opinion it was carried out solely from territory controlled by Russian fighters and there is no doubt that drunken separatists are not able to operate Buk systems - and this means these systems were operated solely by professional Russian soldiers,” Mr Yatseniuk told a government meeting.
Russia has denied Ukrainian and Western charges that it has sent arms and men to help the separatists in the conflict.
Seeking independence
The plane was shot down three months after fighting broke out between Ukrainian forces and the separatists who are seeking independence from the pro-European government in Kiev.
Experts and Western governments believe rebels shot down the aircraft, possibly mistaking it for a Ukrainian military plane.
Moscow has offered alternative theories, including that it might have been shot down by a Ukrainian fighter plane, or by Ukrainian forces.
Robby Oehlers, whose cousin Daisy was among those killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down, said the conclusion of the Dutch investigation was shared with family members at a meeting in The Hague. "It was a Buk," he said.
Mr Oehlers said it was "as quiet as a mouse" as Dutch Safety Board chairman Tjibbe Joustra explained the conclusions of the 15-month investigation to families.
Official presentation
The meeting with families of victims came ahead of the official presentation later of the investigation’s final report.
Investigators have found the passengers and crew on the flight would have died very soon after it exploded, a grieving father has said.
Barry Sweeney, whose 28-year-old son Liam was on board, told the BBC they were told a Russian-made Buk missile exploded, hitting the cockpit first, killing the pilots.
That would have caused disorientation and confusion in the rest of the plane, he said.
“Hopefully most people were unconscious by the time this happened and death would have occurred pretty quick,” he said.
“That is a comfort for 298 sets of relatives.”
Mr Sweeney's son was travelling from Newcastle with his friend John Alder to watch their beloved Newcastle United play in a pre-season tour of New Zealand.
Agencies