A team of international prosecutors has released a new “batch of recordings of calls” between pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine and high-ranking Russian officials in the weeks leading up to the downing of MalaysiaAirlines flight MH17 in 2014 over eastern Ukraine.
The calls include conversations with separatist leaders, including Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed “prime minister”, and the accused Igor Girkin, the self-proclaimed “defense minister” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). They contacted Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed leader in Crimea, and Vladislav Surkov, a high-ranking Russian government official.
In at least three intercepted calls, separatist officials and members were heard saying they were protecting Russian interests and acting on orders from Russia’s FSB and GRU intelligence services.
“I carry out orders and protect the interests of a single state, the Russian Federation. That is the essence,” Borodai was quoted as saying by a stranger on one of the recordings.
In another phone call in early July 2014, a DPR member told a local commander that “men are coming on orders from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.” According to the DPR member, these men “will drive the local warlords out of the units” and “people from Moscow” will take command.
In another July 2014 call, Surkov told Borodai that the DNR would receive military aid from Russia.
The JIT, a Dutch-led international research team, said its evidence showed the Russian government’s influence on Donetsk’s administrative, financial and military affairs.
“Mutual contacts intensified in the first half of July 2014. There was almost daily telephone contact between the DPR leadership and their contacts in the Russian Federation,” JIT reported.
Several former fighters told JIT that the FSB and GRU were involved in the day-to-day management of the DPR. “One of the witnesses allegedly stated that the DPR leaders regularly went to Moscow to consult their contacts with the FSB and the GRU.”
“Evidence of close ties between GDR leaders and Russian government officials raises questions about their possible involvement in the development of the BUK,” JIT said.
Prosecutors had previously said that the BUK missile system that shot down the plane came from the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade, based in the western Russian city of Kursk.
The JCC called witnesses to provide information on who controlled the separatist leadership and ordered the development of the missile system before the downing of MH17.
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