A Ukrainian pilot blamed by Moscow for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has been found dead at his home.

Captain Vladislav Voloshin always maintained he was the victim of a grotesque smear by Russia. The West believes Russia was responsible for the tragedy.

Voloshin, 29, was a Su-25 pilot in the Ukrainian Air Force when the Boeing 777 was blasted out of the sky on July 17, 2014, leading to 298 deaths.

Reports in Ukraine say he was found dead at his home in Mykolayiv from a gunshot wound. A murder probe has been launched by the Ukrainian authorities although initial reports suggest he took his own life.

Ukrainian pilot Captain Vladislav Voloshin (pictured) who was blamed by Moscow for shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 has been found dead at his home

Captain Vladislav Voloshin (pictured) always maintained he was the victim of a grotesque smear by Russia which is seen in the West as being responsible for the downing of the jet

The 29-year-old was a Su-25 pilot in the Ukrainian Air Force when the Boeing 777 was blasted out of the sky on July 17, 2014 (pictured) leading to 298 deaths

Work colleagues reported that he had been feeling 'depressed'.

His wife said she heard a gun shot and ran to him. Reports say she called police and ambulance, but a team of paramedics was unable to save his life.

After the Russian accusations originally made in December 2014 , Voloshin quit the Ukrainian air force and since last year was acting director of Mykolayiv International Airport.

A BBC documentary in 2016 highlighted the claims which directly conflict with the official Dutch-led probe into the air horror which insists MH17 was downed by a powerful surface-to-air Buk missile shot from pro-Russian rebel held territory.

Voloshin said last year: 'I did not shoot down the MH17 Boeing. A former military mate of mine called (Evgeny) Agapov, a mechanical engineer, falsely gave evidence against me.'

He stressed: 'We did not carry out flights on July 17. The mechanic also says that three aircraft went out on a mission and I was the only one to return. But again this actually happened on the 23rd.

Reports in Ukraine say he was found dead at his home in Mykolayiv from a gun shot wound

A murder probe has been launched by the Ukrainian authorities although initial reports suggest he took his own life

Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, accused Moscow of using propaganda to 'hide the crimes organised by the Russian Federation, including against civilians' in relation to flight MH17

'He said that the aircraft was carrying air-to-air missiles. There were no air-to-air missiles. I was carrying air-to-surface weapons for ground targets.'

Russia had claimed Agapov was a credible witness from Dnipropetrovsk air base, where both men served.

Agapov alleged the Ukrainian captain went on a sortie armed with air-to-air missiles, and returned without them soon after the Boeing 777 was downed.

After landing, Voloshin was 'scared', muttering that the incoming 'aircraft' - supposedly MH17 - 'was in the wrong place at the wrong time', he claimed.

The Russian Investigative Committee, headed by Alexander Bastrykin, a former university classmate of Vladimir Putin, insisted that the witness has passed a polygraph test and his testimony was credible.

SBU official Markiyan Lubkivskyi countered that Voloshin was not engaged in combat flights on July 17, the day MH17 was downed, and had not used weapons against aerial targets in the current conflict.

Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, accused Moscow of using propaganda to 'hide the crimes organised by the Russian Federation, including against civilians' in relation to flight MH17.

He said: 'A great deal of evidence, including data from satellite observation, has proved that terrorist groups controlled by the Russian military shot down the passenger aircraft'.

After the Russian accusations originally made in December 2014 , Voloshin quit the Ukrainian air force and since last year was acting director of Mykolayiv International Airport

is wife said she heard a gun shot and ran to him. Reports say she called police and ambulance, but a team of paramedics was unable to save his life

They used 'a Russian BUK surface-to-air-missile system', he said.

But Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said: 'The facts and information that the witness possessed and shared - clearly and without getting confused - convince the investigators that his testimony is truthful, something that, by the way, a polygraph test has confirmed.'

He 'personally' saw Voloshin's warplane 'loaded with R-60 type air-to-air missiles, with which Su-25 fighters were not normally equipped'.

His aircraft returned without these missiles.

Voloshin quit the Ukrainian air force in 2016 claiming that he could not afford to raise his two children on his service pay.

Reports since his death said that he had admitted to feeling 'suicidal'.

Police said it was normal to launch a murder probe in such circumstances.