The sophisticated missile system used to shoot down a Malaysian jet was given to pro-Russian Ukraine rebels by Russia, Secretary of State John Kerry said today, citing "extraordinary circumstantial evidence" the US had on the tragic incident that killed 298 people.
"It's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia in the hands of separatists," Kerry told CNN, saying that the Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile system had been used to hit MH17 over eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
"We know with confidence, with confidence that the Ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point in time. So it obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists."
Kerry said the US had "extraordinary circumstantial evidence" of the incident that killed all 298 people on board the Malaysia Airlines plane from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
"We picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory," he told NBC's Meet the Press. "We know where it came from. We know the timing."
"And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards," he said.
"...There are an enormous array of facts that point at Russia's support for and involvement in this effort," Kerry told the ABC news channel.
"We know to a fact that the separatists bragged on the social media immediately afterwards about the shoot-down and then later, when one of the leaders of the movement, Igor Strelkov, who's the self-proclaimed defense minister of the People's Republic of Donetsk, he posted a social media bragging about the takedown of a military transport, and when it turned out to be civilian, he then quickly removed it from the social media," he said.
Claiming that the evidences have been "seriously compromised" Kerry demanded full access to incident site by the international investigators.
"Now drunken separatists are stacking bodies into the back of trucks, removing materials from the site," he said, adding, "They have removed, we understand, some aeroplane parts."
Kerry demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin should publicly call on the separatists.
"He should engage in a public support for the cease-fire. He should engage with the separatists directly in order to release the hostages that they've taken," he said.
