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These sensational new pictures allegedly show Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 being shot down by a fighter jet.

The photographs were broadcast tonight by Russian state media as evidence the passenger plane was shot down in July by a Ukrainian warplane and not a ground to air missile as previously believed.

It was claimed that the images were produced by a British or US satellite.

The "leaked" pictures show a missile streaking towards the MH17 flight which was downed, killing all 298 people on board, it was claimed.

TV presenter Mikhail Leontiev claimed the mysterious source who provided the images concluded they showed "how a Mig-29 fighter plane destroys the Boeing passenger plane".

The West has repeatedly suggested the plane was shot down by pro-Moscow rebels using a Russian-made BUK missile system.

Russia has argued an unidentified plane was in vicinity at the time of the crash, and that Ukraine and the West have hushed up this fact.

The Kremlin-owned channel's presenter said: "Today we have all grounds to suppose that a State crime was committed by those who deliberately destroyed the plane. And by those who are cynically hiding it, having the full information."

The extraordinary broadcast came ahead of Western leaders including David Cameron confronting Vladimir Putin over the crash at a summit in Australia.

(Image: Channel 1/east2west news)

Channel One claimed: "We have at our disposal a sensational shot, supposedly made by foreign satellite spy during the final seconds of MH17 above Ukraine."

The reported disputed a BUK missile as the cause of the tragedy.

"To cut it short, it looks like there was no BUK and no launch from the ground. There were dozens professional and thousands of amateur witnesses, and no-one registered it," claimed Leontiev.

Ivan Adrievskiy, vice president of Russian Engineers Union, said: "We see a photograph taken from space from a low orbit. Usually such images are taken for the sake of general reconnaissance of the air and the ground.

"The coordinates of the photograph mean we can suppose that the image was taken by an American or British satellite.

"We have studied this picture in detail and did not find any sign proving it to be fake."

An "expert" called George Bilt was cited as saying the Boeing was shot out of the sky in "a classic fighter jet attack from the rear".