Igor Girkin: Commander of Donetsk People’s Army, Igor Strelkov, Says Group Shot Down Malaysia Airlines MH17 (+Photos)
By Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times and Kristina Skorbach, Epoch Times | July 17, 2014
Last Updated: July 18, 2014 1:28 am
Commander
and self-proclaimed minister of Defence of so the called 'Donetsk
People's Republic' Igor Girkin, aka Strelok (C), walks with his
bodyguards in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on July 11, 2014.
(AFP Photo)
Russian-backed separatist leader Igor Girkin (who also goes by
the name of Strelkov) has claimed credit for shooting down Malaysia
Airlines MH17.
The plane went down over eastern Ukraine near the border of Russia. It took off from Amsterdam and was headed to Kuala Lumpur.
“The plane has just been taken down somewhere around Torez (Donetsk Oblast). It lays there behind the Progress mine. We did warn you – do not fly in ‘our sky,’” he said through his account on VK, the Russian version of Facebook.
The Progress mine refers to the mining town of about 80,000 people.
“And here is the video proving another ‘bird’ falling down. The bird went down behind the slagheap, not in the residential district. So no peaceful people injured. There is also information about another plane shot,” he added.
Stelkov and his group, the Donetsk People’s Army, apparently mistook the plane for a Ukrainian army plane.
Self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the pro-Russian separatist ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’, Alexander Borodai (C), and ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ self-proclaimed Defence Minister, Igor Strelkov (L), deliver a press conference in Donetsk on July 10, 2014. (AFP Photo)
A portrait of Igor Strelkov, military commander of pro-Russian fighters with other unidentified fighters is featured on a billboard reading “300 Strelkov’s people” paraphrasing the 300 Spartans, in Konstantinovka, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Commander and self-proclaimed minister of Defence of so the called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ Igor Girkin, aka Strelok (C), congradulates Arsen Pavlov (R), a field commander of the so called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’, and his bride Elena Kolenkina (L), during their wedding in Donetsk on July 11, 2014. (AFP Photo)
The Donetsk People’s Republic had boasted on June 29 that they took over a Ukrainian military base that had Buk ground-to-air missiles, but wouldn’t say how many, reported the Kyiv Post.
The Buk missiles can travel up to 25 kilometers (15 miles), three times the altitude MH17 was flying.
Other sources are reporting that the rebels are denying that they are responsible. ”This could happen only if it was a fighter jet or a surface-to-air missile (that shot it down),” one rebel, who gave his name as Sergei, told Reuters, adding that the rebels don’t have weapons capable of shooting down a plane at such a height.
But Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor at Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, says that he caught a photograph on the ground just minutes after the Buk missile was fired.
A launcher similar to the Buk missile system was seen by Associated Press journalists earlier Thursday near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, which is held by the rebels.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the downing an act of terrorism and called for an international investigation into the crash. He insisted that his forces did not shoot down the plane.
People walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. Ukraine said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
A man gestures at a crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 after it was shot down near Shaktarsk, Ukraine. (AFP Photo)
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “informed the U.S. president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory” without giving further details about their call. The White House confirmed the call, with President Barack Obama calling the crash a “terrible tragedy.” Britain has asked for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Ukraine.
One of the separatist leaders, Andrei Purgin, said that he was certain that Ukrainian troops had shot the plane down, but gave no explanation or proof for his statement.
Strelkov, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Army, works for the Russian military agency GRU, according to BBC, citing the Ukrainian security service. Russian media says that he is a retired officer of the Russian Federal Security Service. He was born in 1970 and is a registered citizen of Moscow. He has been active in the region for decades.
His group has combat experience fighting for the Russian armed forces in Chechnya, Central Asia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Syria, he told Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. He himself took part in conflicts in Yugoslavia.
“He is also said to be a military enthusiast who specializes in historical re-enactment and staged recreations of battles,” it reported.
A photo showing the footprint of the Buk missile that allegedly took down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. (Anton Gerashchenko)
In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The plane, with the tail number 9M-MRD, is the same aircraft that was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, July 17, 2014 when it was shot down near the Ukraine Russia border, according to Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. (AP Photo/JoePriesAviation.net)
A woman reacts to news regarding a Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed in eastern Ukraine at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Friday, July 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul)
Around the time the plane crashed, Russian media quoted witnesses as saying they saw a plane being hit by what they thought was a rocket.
It was the second time that a Malaysia Airlines plane was lost in less than six months. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had been attending a European Union summit in Brussels, headed back to the Netherlands to deal with the crash.
In Kuala Lumpur, several relatives of those onboard the Malaysian airliner came to the international airport.
A distraught Akmar Mohamad Noor, 67, said her older sister was coming to visit the family in Kuala Lumpur for the first time in five years.
“She called me just before she boarded the plane and said ‘see you soon,’” Akmar said.
There have been several disputes over planes being shot down over eastern Ukraine in recent days.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kiev says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents. Ukraine Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday that Russia did not shoot down the Ukrainian fighter jet on Wednesday. “We didn’t do it,” Churkin said.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely.
Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbor.
Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday over eastern Ukraine by a missile fired from Russian territory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Flights that were airborne when the Malaysia Airlines jet crashed have been re-routed, transportation officials said.
The plane went down over eastern Ukraine near the border of Russia. It took off from Amsterdam and was headed to Kuala Lumpur.
“The plane has just been taken down somewhere around Torez (Donetsk Oblast). It lays there behind the Progress mine. We did warn you – do not fly in ‘our sky,’” he said through his account on VK, the Russian version of Facebook.
The Progress mine refers to the mining town of about 80,000 people.
“And here is the video proving another ‘bird’ falling down. The bird went down behind the slagheap, not in the residential district. So no peaceful people injured. There is also information about another plane shot,” he added.
Stelkov and his group, the Donetsk People’s Army, apparently mistook the plane for a Ukrainian army plane.
Self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the pro-Russian separatist ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’, Alexander Borodai (C), and ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ self-proclaimed Defence Minister, Igor Strelkov (L), deliver a press conference in Donetsk on July 10, 2014. (AFP Photo)
A portrait of Igor Strelkov, military commander of pro-Russian fighters with other unidentified fighters is featured on a billboard reading “300 Strelkov’s people” paraphrasing the 300 Spartans, in Konstantinovka, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Commander and self-proclaimed minister of Defence of so the called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ Igor Girkin, aka Strelok (C), congradulates Arsen Pavlov (R), a field commander of the so called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’, and his bride Elena Kolenkina (L), during their wedding in Donetsk on July 11, 2014. (AFP Photo)
The Donetsk People’s Republic had boasted on June 29 that they took over a Ukrainian military base that had Buk ground-to-air missiles, but wouldn’t say how many, reported the Kyiv Post.
The Buk missiles can travel up to 25 kilometers (15 miles), three times the altitude MH17 was flying.
Other sources are reporting that the rebels are denying that they are responsible. ”This could happen only if it was a fighter jet or a surface-to-air missile (that shot it down),” one rebel, who gave his name as Sergei, told Reuters, adding that the rebels don’t have weapons capable of shooting down a plane at such a height.
But Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor at Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, says that he caught a photograph on the ground just minutes after the Buk missile was fired.
A launcher similar to the Buk missile system was seen by Associated Press journalists earlier Thursday near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, which is held by the rebels.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the downing an act of terrorism and called for an international investigation into the crash. He insisted that his forces did not shoot down the plane.
People walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. Ukraine said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
A man gestures at a crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 after it was shot down near Shaktarsk, Ukraine. (AFP Photo)
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “informed the U.S. president of the report from air traffic controllers that the Malaysian plane had crashed on Ukrainian territory” without giving further details about their call. The White House confirmed the call, with President Barack Obama calling the crash a “terrible tragedy.” Britain has asked for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Ukraine.
One of the separatist leaders, Andrei Purgin, said that he was certain that Ukrainian troops had shot the plane down, but gave no explanation or proof for his statement.
Strelkov, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Army, works for the Russian military agency GRU, according to BBC, citing the Ukrainian security service. Russian media says that he is a retired officer of the Russian Federal Security Service. He was born in 1970 and is a registered citizen of Moscow. He has been active in the region for decades.
His group has combat experience fighting for the Russian armed forces in Chechnya, Central Asia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Syria, he told Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. He himself took part in conflicts in Yugoslavia.
“He is also said to be a military enthusiast who specializes in historical re-enactment and staged recreations of battles,” it reported.
A
Girkin Facebook group, which appears to be filled with fans of the
commander, has the following slogan: “We have defeated the nazis, we
will defeat the neo-nazis.”
In it, group members post stories about Strelkov’s recent success in Ukraine.A photo showing the footprint of the Buk missile that allegedly took down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. (Anton Gerashchenko)
In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The plane, with the tail number 9M-MRD, is the same aircraft that was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, July 17, 2014 when it was shot down near the Ukraine Russia border, according to Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. (AP Photo/JoePriesAviation.net)
A woman reacts to news regarding a Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed in eastern Ukraine at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Friday, July 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul)
Around the time the plane crashed, Russian media quoted witnesses as saying they saw a plane being hit by what they thought was a rocket.
It was the second time that a Malaysia Airlines plane was lost in less than six months. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It has not been found, but the search has been concentrated in the Indian Ocean far west of Australia.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had been attending a European Union summit in Brussels, headed back to the Netherlands to deal with the crash.
In Kuala Lumpur, several relatives of those onboard the Malaysian airliner came to the international airport.
A distraught Akmar Mohamad Noor, 67, said her older sister was coming to visit the family in Kuala Lumpur for the first time in five years.
“She called me just before she boarded the plane and said ‘see you soon,’” Akmar said.
There have been several disputes over planes being shot down over eastern Ukraine in recent days.
On Wednesday evening, a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian plane, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, adding to what Kiev says is mounting evidence that Moscow is directly supporting the separatist insurgents. Ukraine Security Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said the pilot of the Sukhoi-25 jet hit by the air-to-air missile was forced to bail after his jet was shot down.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday that Russia did not shoot down the Ukrainian fighter jet on Wednesday. “We didn’t do it,” Churkin said.
Pro-Russia rebels, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for strikes Wednesday on two Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 jets.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the second jet was hit by a portable surface-to-air missile, but added the pilot was unscathed and managed to land his plane safely.
Moscow denies Western charges that is supporting the separatists or sowing unrest in its neighbor.
Earlier this week, Ukraine said a military transport plane was shot down Monday over eastern Ukraine by a missile fired from Russian territory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Flights that were airborne when the Malaysia Airlines jet crashed have been re-routed, transportation officials said.