The Dutch broadcaster RTL Nieuws claims that it possesses photos proving that the MH17 crash was caused by an anti-aircraft missile fired from the ground, the Dutch NL Times reported Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 23 (Sputnik) —The Dutch broadcaster RTL Nieuws has said that it possesses photos that prove that the MH17 crash was caused by an anti-aircraft missile fired from the ground, the Dutch NL Times reported Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, the Dutch TV channel has obtained three photos taken near the crash site. The first two show "a vertical plume," coming, supposedly from the place where the missile was launched. The third depicts "a large black plume of smoke" from where the aircraft fell.

"I photographed that white line. At the time I did not know what it meant. For me it was just a white stripe: from the horizon up to the clouds where it disbanded. Only later it became clear what it was," the photographer who took the pictures told RTL, as quoted by the NL Times. The camera was handed to the international crash investigation commission. RTL did not publish the pictures to protect the photographer's identity.

On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk killing all 298 people on board. In September, the Dutch Safety Board, heading the investigation into the crash, issued a preliminary report suggesting that the passenger plane had been hit by "a large number of high-energy objects." Kiev accused local pro-independent forces of the attack, who, in turn, claimed they do not have the weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 30,000 feet.

Late on Monday, Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published an interview with a Ukrainian airbase employee, who claims to be an eyewitness of the crash. He said that on the day of the crash a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 (Frogfoot) attack aircraft took off from an airbase in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk carrying air-to-air missiles and returned without them. The Russian Investigative Committee has already established contact with the man and plans to question him in the nearest future.

Earlier in December, the Security Service of Ukraine said the Netherlands would release the progress report on the crash before the end of 2014 and that the inquiry would be continued throughout 2015.