Fact Checking the Russian Ministry of Defence's July 21st MH17 Press Briefing with Checkdesk

During Bellingcat’s investigations into the downing of MH17 it’s become clear that a number of statements made in the Russian Ministry of Defence’s July 21st Press Briefing on the downing of MH17 were simply untrue. They made claims about the flight path of MH17 and it’s diversion to another heading that were shown to be untrue by data presented by the Dutch Safety Board and from the aircraft tracking website Flightrader24.com, and their claims about the video showing the Buk missile launcher linked to the downing of MH17 being actually filmed in government controlled Krasnoarmeisk were also shown to be untrue.

As those claims have already been shown to be false Bellingcat is creating a Checkdesk story and inviting readers to contribute to the fact checking of other claims made in the press briefing.

Readers can visit Checkdesk here and contribute information about claims made by the Russian Ministry of Defence to establish whether or not those claims are accurate. Currently two claims are open for investigation; whether Buks were deployed around the crash site as the Russian Ministry of Defence claims, and the claimed detection of an SU-25 near MH17.