Investigative collective Bellingcat, founded by citizen journalist Eliot Higgins three days before MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, have identified both of the pro-Russian rebels and worked out where there were on that day. After Ukrainian sources released the intercepted phone call their opponents claimed it was from a different day and location. Mr Higgins, 40, said: “We were able to identify these people, work out where they were on this day and the separatist who said there is a birdy flying towards you just happened to be in the flight path of MH17 and the other person just happened to be close to where the missile launcher is.

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“So it is pretty clear that this was the moment the plane was spotted, very shortly afterwards, within a minute, a missile was launched at MH17.

“So whatever decision process was made was very, very short.”

Mr Higgins added that in a five-year investigation of the downing of MH17 his Bellingcat group tracked the journey of the missile launcher used, a Buk 332, from Russia across the Ukrainian border using photos and videos posted online.