A NEW report has revealed “undeniable evidence” the missile launcher that shot down flight MH17 was supplied by the Russian military.

Published by a crowd-funded investigation team headed by investigative journalist Eliot Higgins, the investigation entitled MH17: Source of the Separatists’ Buk has been working to uncover the origin of the Buk missile launcher that shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine on July 17 killing 298 people.



Calling themselves the Bellingcat project, the team of researchers analysed photographs, videos, social media documentation and eye witness evidence, making use of “open source material overlooked by other organisations”, to track the movements of the Buk missile launcher.

The investigation team believes the missile launcher was part of a convoy travelling from Kursk to near the Ukrainian border as part of a training exercise between July 22nd and July 25th, and was separated from the main convoy at some point during that period.

“It is the opinion of the Bellingcat MH17 investigation team that there is undeniable evidence that separatists in Ukraine were in control of a Buk missile launcher on July 17th and transported it from Donetk to Snizhne on a transporter,” the researchers write.

Although the report doesn’t pinpoint who actually fired the missile, it concludes by saying there is “strong evidence indicating that the Russian military provided separatists in eastern Ukraine with the Buk missile launcher filmed and photographed in eastern Ukraine on July 17th”.

The revelations of links to Russia come ahead of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the Australian leader has pledged to confront Putin over the downing of MH17.

Mr Abbott has promised “robust discussion” with the Russian president over the downing of MH17 which saw 38 Australians killed.

“Australians were murdered. They were murdered by Russian-backed rebels using Russian-supplied equipment,” Mr Abbott said previously when he said he planned to “shirt-front” Putin.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet this week either in Beijing on Monday or Tuesday at the APEC conference or at this weekend’s G20 summit in Brisbane.

The official investigation in to the downing of MH17, headed by the Dutch Safety Board, is yet to hand down its final findings, and has not addressed the source of the missile.

While the recovery mission in Ukraine continues, the Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said on the weekend the last nine victims of flight MH17 may never be recovered.

“We cannot say at this moment in any certain way ... at what moment, and even if, we can recover the last nine,” he said.