Russia's 'secret witness' claims Ukrainian pilot shot down MH17

Russia's secret witness - a Ukrainian serviceman - has revealed that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed by a Ukrainian air force pilot, who fired his air-to-air missile at the wrong aircraft.

According to the BBC, the man contacted Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, saying he had been at Aviatorske airport near the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk when flight MH17 was shot down.

The unnamed man said in the interview that an Su-25 plane armed with air-to-air missiles had taken off before MH17 had been shot down had returned sans its weaponry, the report said.

He identified the pilot flying the Su-25 as Capt Voloshyn.

The serviceman said that the pilot was very scared after the incident, adding "the aircraft was in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Following the interview, Russia's Investigative Committee said that its investigators had met the man and that he was put on a polygraph test, which he cleared.

A committee spokesman said that the witness' evidence was very important and proved the involvement of Ukrainian armed forces in the Boeing crash.