In the summer of 2014, a Russian anti-aircraft missile shot down a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, scattering mutilated bodies and suitcases in fields 60 miles southeast of Friday’s tragedy. Now, as then, the Kremlin’s response was a clumsy and transparent refusal to then blame Ukraine. In an earlier daily news release, the Russian Defense Ministry did not mention the rocket attack on Kramatorsk. However, he referred to three “high-precision air-to-air” attacks on stations in the neighboring cities of Pokrovsk, Slavyansk and Barvenenko. Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian military, said the attacks “destroyed weapons and military equipment of the Ukrainian military reserves that reached Donbass.”
Russia refuses to interfere
But within an hour, he had issued a denial. No strikes were carried out or planned against Kramatorsk, he said. Only the Ukrainian armed forces are handling these missiles, he claimed.
In fact, Russia has been using Tochka-U missiles in Ukraine since at least March. The reinforcements left behind by scattering blows have been spotted on battlefields from Mariupol in the south to Chernihiv in the north.
Zvezda, the Defense Ministry’s own television channel, reported that Russian and Belarusian forces used Tochka-U missiles during exercises just a week before the invasion began.
And as with the MH17 tragedy, pro-Russian propaganda and social media initially hailed the attacks as a successful blow to the Ukrainian army.
“Ten minutes ago, this happened at the Kramatorsk train station,” wrote Russian Kremlin-linked journalist Dmitry Steshin in a video showing smoke billowing and debris scattered on the streets. “A group of fighters from the Ukrainian armed forces worked here.”
The post was later deleted, but not before it was reserved for later re-posts and screenshots.
Another pro-Russian Telegram account issued a covert warning the previous afternoon.
In a post at 9:09 p.m. Thursday night, the anonymous author said people should avoid evacuation from the Donetsk region via train stations. He repeated the warning at 9.15 a.m., when the rockets hit the train stations.
