Putin awards honorary Guards title to anti-aircraft missile brigade that supplied the Buk that shot down Flight MH-17

In 2016, Bellingcat published the results of its two-year-long investigation of Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade as a 118-page report titled “MH17 – Potential Suspects and Witnesses from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade”, available in Russian and English. The report provided exhaustive information on the structure, armament, personnel, and history of this military unit, as well as data on its place in the hierarchy of the Russian Armed Forces.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was a passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. Flying over the Donetsk Region, the Boeing 777 was shot down. None of its 298 passengers or crew survived.

A joint investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider identified the key suspects in this case: officers with the call signs ‘Orion’ and ‘Delfin’. ‘Delfin’ (“dolphin”) turned out to be Colonel General Nikolai Tkachev, Chief Inspector of Russia’s Central Military District. ‘Orion’ was GRU general Oleg Ivannikov, also known as the former defense minister of South Ossetia Andrey Laptev. He orchestrated the activities of Russian troops in Ukraine, and among other things, was a top commander at the Wagner PMC.

In November 2022, the court sentenced the three defendants in the case to life imprisonment in absentia. Russian nationals Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and Sergei Dubinsky, as well as Leonid Kharchenko, were found guilty of murder and actions that led to the plane crash.