The Russian Buk surface-to-air missile system, which was used to shoot down flight MH17 in July 2014, was transported to occupied Donbas on the eve of the crash. It was supposed to help the militants resist Ukrainian combat aircraft.

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Twitter journalist De Telegraaf Saskia Belleman.

According to prosecutor Ward Ferdinandusse, the Buk was delivered to Ukraine from the Russian Federation through the border crossing in Severnoye (Luhansk region) on the night of July 16 to 17, 2014.

"This happened at a time when a lot of heavy equipment was being brought in from Russia," he noted.

He also stressed that this was preceded by calls by accused Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, who held leadership positions in the so-called "DNR," about the need to supply air defense equipment for high altitude targets.

The prosecutor noted that in the weeks before the crash of MH17 only in the Donetsk region 12 Ukrainian helicopters and four planes were shot down. At the same time, the militants could not hit the higher flying Ukrainian fighters with their weapons, as a result of which they suffered heavy casualties.

It is also reported that the prosecution at the trial presented data from a wiretap of Dubinsky's phone conversation about the need to supply exactly missiles and Buk SAMs.

"Our only hope is the Buk. And the Buk is coming tonight, and all the problems are solved," he told Oleg Pulatov, the only defendant against whom the MH17 trial is not in absentia.

In addition, Ferdinandusse noted that on the eve of the MH17 crash, militants had already shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets near occupied Snizhne.

At the moment, the court is considering a detailed route of the Russian Buk before the crash and after it.

We recall that earlier it was reported that the defense of the accused Oleg Pulatov demanded to attach to the case the testimony of a Russian soldier from the 53rd Kursk anti-aircraft brigade, who was in Donbas at the time of the crash MH17. The court refused, because the witness changed his testimony.

The Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down on July 17, 2014 in the midst of fighting in Donbas. There were 298 people on board.