On July 17, is the fourth anniversary of the Boeing 777 airliner of the Malaysia Airlines, which was carrying out MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and crashed in 2014 near the village of Grabovo of Shakhtersky district. On the eve of this date, correspondents of the official website of the Donetsk People’s Republic met up with Eduard Yakubovskiy, the Chairman of the DPR Supreme Court, who shared his memories of those tragic events.
“In July 2014, I was holding the office of the First Deputy Prosecutor General of the DPR, and for that period acted as the Prosecutor General, as he was on a business trip. I received the report on the tragedy from ex-Chairman of the DPR Council of Ministers Alexander Borodai, who said that in the vicinity of Zaroschenskoye and Grabovo a plane crashed and it was necessary to organize an inspection of the scene and other necessary investigative measures. At that time, the DPR Prosecutor General’s Office did not have enough investigators. Therefore, we had to turn to the Ukrainian police for help, which at that time still continued to fulfill its duties to protect public order in the territory of the Republic.
In the morning of the 18th of July, we headed with a convoy to the scene of the accident. On the way, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office called with instructions not to go to the scene of the accident, that is, not to fulfill our official duty, even according to the laws of Ukraine.
At the scene we found bodies of those killed in the plane crash, the wreckage of the plane, some things scattered over a large area. We set up investigators, organized an inspection of the scene, instructed the forensics to perform their duties. First of all, it was necessary to enter the event at the scene by videotaping and completing on-site reports. The forensic scientists had to collect material evidence that were important to the investigation.
Moreover, we found out that there were possible eyewitnesses. Thus, local residents were found who saw that when the MH17 plane was in the air, another aircraft approached it and soon turned around and flew away. We had no air forces then, and we still have none. It could only be an airplane of the Ukrainian Air Force,” Eduard Yakubovskiy said.
In addition, the Chairman of the DPR Supreme Court cited interesting facts of the OSCE staff interfering with the investigation, of groundless accusations against the militia of looting, and details of the transfer of the “black boxes” to the authorized Malaysian agents.
“From the moment I learned about the tragedy, I can say that we acted on the basis of the opportunities that were available at that time. The actions of our leadership were professional, competent and transparent. We did not conceal information about the accident; we let, literally within the first hours, foreign journalists in the scene and they had the opportunity to observe with their own eyes the situation, the actions of our investigators and security officers. Our actions were adequate, corresponding to the circumstances in which we acted,” added Eduard Yakubovskiy.
Source: Official website of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic (с)