EU Referendum


Ukraine: part of the "evidence" unravels


22/07/2014



000a BUK-022 night312.jpg

Some of the evidence adduced by the Ukranian Security Services (SBU), as to the movements of the "BUK" SA-11 missile launchers, and the number in the hands of the separatists, comes from their website on 19 July.

There, the SBU tells us that, on 18 July at 2 am in the Luhansk region, two trucks crossed the border with Russia, each of them carrying a "BUK-M" launcher, said to be in the possession of the separatists. And, by way of evidence, we are offered two sources, one a video of a low loader and another, a still photograph of a similar low loader, hauling a "BUK-M" launcher with the vehicle designation 312 (photograph above).

We remarked on this launcher in our own post, noting that apparently the same unit had been seen as part of a Ukrainian Army convoy on 5 March 2014, to the north of Donetsk - suggesting therefore that the launcher illustrated by the SBU was of Ukrainian Army origin.

However, now flagged up by the Interpreter website is a short note referencing a Facebook page which shows what appears to be the same truck and launcher combination (below). But, for the SBU, there is a slight problem here: the datestamp (which cannot be changed by a user) is Tuesday 18 March 2014, at 10.35pm. This is a "mobile upload" so it could be very close to the time the photograph was taken.

000a BUK-022 FB1.jpg

Furthermore, the location is identified as the Yasynuvata post, just north of Donetsk. It is not so very far from Gorlovka where what appears to be the same launcher was spotted, only 13 days earlier, and only about five miles from the A-1402 regimental base on Stratonavtiv Street.

The Interpreter is of the view that the Facebook photos (there are two of them – the second is below) were clearly taken at the same time and in the same location as the picture released by the SBU. It considers, therefore, that the SBU has "made a mistake" by including this picture in their latest release. It does not appear to show a BUK that was in possession of the rebels – and nor indeed that it was on its way to Russia. 

000a BUK-022 FB2.jpg

Yet, this has not stopped the Washington Post (and many other newspapers, including The Times) accepting the original photograph as evidence of the launcher having "been spotted entering Russia from Ukraine at 2 a.m. Friday".

We don't know whether the SBU was simply mistaken, or deliberately lying, but a service which is offering a four-month-old photograph as evidence of an event that supposedly happened last week is not one to be trusted. And nor, without independent corroboration, can any other evidence they have on offer.

And that is the problem that is blighting the whole of this affair – much of the so-called evidence that has been presented is unverifiable and contradictory, in the context where none of the parties can be trusted to be telling the truth.

But, given that the Western media and intelligence services have been so reliant on the SBU, nothing they have to report – particularly as to the BUK missile launchers - can be taken as read.

When it comes down to it, there is simply no evidence as to the number of SA-11 launchers that have been in the possession of the separatists, from where any were obtained and where they are now.

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