Employees of the Donetsk-Luhansk regional directorate of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine have detained a militant who had previously guarded the wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down in Donbas in July 2014, the State Border Guard Service has reported.

"Operatives of the Donetsk-Luhansk regional directorate of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine from the Joint Forces [...] have detained a citizen of Ukraine who directly participated in the activities of the illegal armed formation 'Vostok' ['East']. Data from social media, where he appeared in a photo taken against the background of the wreckage from the Boeing 777 passenger aircraft, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down by Russian armed formations, helped confirm the criminal activity of the detained militant," the report reads.

According to the report, the militant had guarded the airplane's debris and material evidence for almost two months. He also confirmed reports that a rocket that shot down the Boeing aircraft had been launched from the area of the settlement of Hrabove, Shakhtarsk district, Donetsk region, which was occupied by Russian mercenaries at that time.

The investigation is ongoing.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crewmembers on board the plane. All of them died.

In September 2016, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) said it had been established on the basis of irrefutable evidence that the plane had been shot down by a 9M38 Buk missile launched from the area controlled by pro-Russian militants in the eastern part of Ukraine.

In addition, the JIT said on May 24 that the Buk missile system from which the aircraft was downed belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

op