MH17, and if you allow me to be brutally honest in this post. There was a time I spoke about it regularly, then a time I decided to stop, because I'd done everything possible. This may be the last I write on the theme, and is obviously in the context of the recent Hague ruling. To give you background, I first visited the MH17 site in October 2014, and spent countless days there, doing many video reports on the theme in 2014, and 2015. I did have plans to do a film on the theme, in 2016, but for a number of reasons that didn't happen - mainly, there was another MH17 film in the works by a respected independent journalist, we shared similar views on the subject, I decided to step aside and let him do his film rather than 'overcrowd the market'. His film came out, I didn't really like it, should have gone ahead and made my own film. My own relationship with MH17 is full of regret, and anger. Regret in the first place that 298 innocent people lost their lives, and RIP to them.
Anger. I've never hidden that I support the Donetsk People's Republic, the people's right to self-determination. However, there is no defending some of what happened from the DNR in relation to MH17 - I've seen the same photos you have, of DNR guys posing with MH17 wreckage, on MH17 wreckage, that fills me with absolute disgust, opprobrium. I've got no justification or equivocation for that, it's utterly despicable. There were things that happened early on which make it zero surprise that after 8 years of 'investigation', the Hague has basically arrived at the same verdict as The Sun the day after the tragedy, July 17th, 2014, 'Putin's Missile', as you recall.
At the time, there was a very active Russian news channel called Life News, that was probably the most watched Russian news channel at the time, they made a name for their channel by always having the 'hottest' news from Donbass, albeit at times with questionable accuracy. With MH17, they totally f**cked up, no other way to put it. At that time, summer 2014, the DNR / LNR guys were making a name for themselves shooting down Ukrainian aviation, notably the IL-76 Ukrainian transport aircraft, shot down near Lugansk in June of 2014, taking out all 50 Ukrainian spec-op soldiers who'd come to storm Lugansk. With due respect for human life, in a war situation, that is a huge result, and it is no small part thanks to that that Lugansk remained in LNR hands, as after that Ukrainian forces immediately stopped trying to land aviation in Lugansk. Donetsk has been a no-fly zone since war erupted at Donetsk airport, May 26th, as you'll know. Anyway, Life News got wind that a large aircraft had come down in Donbass, around 70km from Donetsk, and seeing the next sensation, they went all out with a triumphant, grinning, report that the daring DNR guys had felled their latest trophy... only, as we all soon knew, of course Life News deleted the report, but as they say the damage had indeed been done. I quite liked Life News, at its best it was edgy, and fresh, but this was an absolute f***king disaster, and a result of an editorial which put sensational exclusives way above fact checking in priorities.
Igor Strelkov at that time was a DNR commander, and a cult had emerged around him, something which manifest in various online groups in his name. Strelkov was, at least at that time, not socially media minded, and took a relaxed approach to the multiple accounts which mushroomed up, in his name, passing on news in his name. It was on one of these very groups, on Vkontakte, that a post was made claiming DNR responsibility for taking down the latest Ukrainian military aviation... that post was what led to the Life News exclusive, and those two combined, circulated by the world's media, meant that in the court of public opinion, Russia was 'guilty' from day 1, and guilty effectively by 'confession'.
Strelkov didn't write that Vkontakte post, his unit wasn't even in that area - they were regrouping after a recent retreat from Slavyansk. However, it doesn't matter how many times he's said that, for every one person who's heard his version, probably 100,000 thousand have heard the world's media citing Strelkov's 'boast' that his men had 'shot down a Ukrainian aircraft' (that then turned out to be MH17), and that claim enthusiastically promoted on what was essentially Russian state media, Life News. It's hard to speak about 'public relations' in the matter of such a terrible tragedy, but, and I'm sorry to say this as a DNR fan, resident even, but from the DNR / Russia side, in the 'public relations' sphere, MH17 has just been one f*** up after another.
For a long time the site was open to anyone, there was zero control there, anyone went there and did whatever they wanted. Shitbag Dutch 'journalist' Jeroen Akkermans went there, 'found some parts' that he sent away for 'analysis' that 'proved' Russia did it. That grifting f*ckwit Patrick Lancaster was allowed to ghoul around the site for years filming bits of bones, the only result of which was to upset MH17 relatives further. There should have been control over the area, and filming there, as it was, it was an absolute free-for-all.
The response from Russia itself was uncoordinated, all over the place. After initially supporting the version that MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian fighter jets, a 2018 Russian drop of documents 'showed it was a Ukrainian BUK' which downed MH17. When your opponent has effectively crippled you with a killer right hook, fighting back with flailing and flapping around is a tactic unlikely to yield the desired result. The world's media of course wanted to incriminate Russia never mind from day 1, from minute 1, that's a given - the above actions from the DNR, and Russia, side not only made it more than easy for them, did their work for them, but created a mountain to overcome to convince the public otherwise.
MH17 is now naturally known around the world, and probably 8 or 9 out of 10 people think that, yes, 'Russia did it'. The Hague ruling means that documentaries can now be made, Seconds from Disaster etc, showing Russia's 'guilt' as fact. What really happened? Look, I went down the MH17 rabbit hole, pounded the site for days on end, watched every aircraft crash investigation documentary possible, interviewed everyone I could, including MH17 victim relatives. I went through a period of thinking I really did know what happened, that MH17 had been downed by Ukrainian jets - that is what multiple, multiple witnesses there on the scene said they'd seen. But, but... it isn't like this, this isn't Close Encounters of the Third Kind, getting obsessed with something doesn't take you to the answer in and of itself.
An aircraft investigation is a multi-faceted operation, involving the assimilation of multiple, and varied, information - from witness statements to detailed scientific study, tests, simulations. That is how answers which can be accepted as universal truths, are arrived at, from Lockerbie, to TWA Flight 800, to Swissair Flight 111.
The 'investigation' into MH17 has to rank as the worst aircrash investigation in history. Firstly, the MH17 JIT collected hardly any of the plane, when it was all there to be collected. How much of the plane do you see in those photos? It's about half the cockpit they've got there. An aircrash investigation of any integrity will aim to recover around 80% of the plane, even if the plane goes down at sea! MH17 was all there to be collected over quite a small area of land, the JIT team showed zero interest in any of it, over a year on and you could still find fields littered with MH17 parts of all sizes. Eventually it had to be cleared as just that, litter, those pieces which all could have provided vital information to an investigation which wanted to know. The MH17 investigation never wanted to know.
The JIT investigation interviewed hardly any of the MH17 witnesses on the ground, and as the Hague process wearily wound its way to the inevitable conclusion, they spent more time, and money, getting Bellingcat to state that they'd contacted witnesses who initially said they'd seen Ukrainian fighter jets, but had now changed their story... more time and money on that than they ever spent actually speaking to witnesses there on the scene, all waiting to be spoken to, no one from the MH17 JIT wanted to know.
This has been one of the longest posts I've ever written, and I could go on, it's a very emotional theme, and, as stated, from my side, a lot of anger, recriminations even, in connection. I don't know what happened to MH17, to really know that would require a full, non-political investigation, and we never got that. So, that's the bad west. But, on the other side, from the DNR / Russia side, as stated above, it was just one f*** up after another. As you're reading this post, and you've read it thus far, you no doubt have your own view on what happened to MH17. I have my own view. However there will never be an objective truth of what happened on July 17th, 2014, to Malaysia Airlines, Flight 17. Truth is a thing of beauty, reached by pureness of soul, clarity of aspiration. MH17 is a twisted mess of misinformation, f*** ups, politics, cynicism, and manipulation. The Hague verdict has 'convicted' people who may well have nothing at all to do with it, but it doesn't really matter anyway because those people won't serve their 'sentences', because they won't leave Russia. It just means that now the business of making the inevitable films etc on MH17 can really begin, because the 'ending' has been determined. And the politics, well, that never even waited for the Hague verdict, so, business as usual, MH17 will continue to be exploited for political purpose.
I've got nothing more really to say, or add. I'm really, and deeply sad about every victim of the MH17 tragedy, and hope that as I write this, and you read this, their souls are at peace. I honestly, hand on heart, did my best in this.
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