MOSCOW, December 24 (RAPSI) – Russian investigators have questioned a Ukrainian witness who told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper new facts about the July downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane in the Donetsk Region in Ukraine, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin announced on Wednesday.

“Yesterday investigators met with a Ukrainian serviceman, who claims to have voluntarily deserted his military unit and crossed into Russia,” Markin said.

The witness, who has been given a cover name for safety reasons, claims that Malaysia Airlines MH-17 could have been shot down on July 17 by a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 plane piloted by Captain Vladislav Voloshin. He took off from an airfield near Dnepropetrovsk, where the witness was deployed.

According to the witness, he “personally saw how Voloshin’s plane was armed with air-to-air missiles, which are usually not mounted on Su-25 planes under ordinary conditions.”

“The witness has told investigators that there was no need for this in that situation, because the self-defense forces had no aircraft,” Markin said.
Since the witness’s life could be threatened, the investigative authorities are considering including him in the witness protection program.

Markin also said that the Investigative Committee was willing to provide information on Ukraine’s involvement in the airliner’s crash in eastern Ukraine to the relevant international commission.

A Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on July 17. All 298 people on board were killed. It is believed that the plane was downed by a surface-to-air missile.

Kiev has put the blame on the self-defense forces, who argued that they had no technology to down a plane flying at an altitude of about 10 kilometers.