Motorist captures military truck carrying BUK M1 in border town

Daily Mail: 21. July 2014

Is this the BUK missile launcher that shot down MH17 being smuggled back to Russia?!

Is this the BUK missile system back home in Russia after shooting down flight MH17? 

A driver followed this military truck on a main road for two kilometres in a 'border area' of Russia before uploading the footage, filmed with a dashboard camera, on the internet.

The cargo had no escort and Ukrainian sources have seized on it, captioning the footage: 'A Russian blogger filmed the BUK M1 in Russia, the one that shot the Boeing.'

Offending launcher? A driver filmed this BUK launcher on the back of a military track rumbling back across the Russian border on Saturday.

While the footage is visibly in Russia rather than Ukraine, the exact location is not given.

A second truck is also evident in some frames.

It was filmed at around 8.45pm on Saturday. 

Reports from Ukraine suggested the BUK had been smuggled in the dead of night into Russia soon after the plane was blasted out of the sky on Thursday last week. 

It came after images were released of a launcher rumbling through Torez, held by pro-Russian separatists, just two hours before the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down.

Key: The footage, three days after flight MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine, could be a key piece of evidence as leaders try to determine the source

Covert: The equipment was covered up as it made the two-hour journey across the border of Russia and Ukraine shortly after 8.45pm on Saturday

In a tense phone call with Vladimir Putin, David Cameron said Russia would have to 'present compelling and credible evidence' that the Kremlin-backed separatists were not to blame for 298 people - including 10 Britons - being killed despite the images and footage.
He told Mr Putin that blocking international investigators and rescue teams from accessing the site was 'indefensible', a Downing Street spokesman said. 

Mr Cameron is furious that Mr Putin has kept him waiting despite the British death toll. A Downing Street source said Mr Cameron was expressing his anger that 'ten of my citizens have just been killed with a plane that was brought down by a missile that was shot by Russian separatists'. 

A Downing Street source admitted there was 'a sense of frustration that we have not be able to speak to him sooner'. Following the call, Mr Cameron wrote on Twitter: 'I've just spoken to President Putin. I made clear he must ensure access to the crash site so the victims can have proper funerals.' 

'They have allowed limited access, but they have not been able to get free access to the site and there is evidence that some of the material that has forensic value has been moved or removed from the site. It is an interference to what it potentially an important crime scene.

'Russia has a clear obligation to use its influence on the separatists to secure the site and allow access to international accident investigators. We are applying all the pressure we can on the Russians. The Russians should know that the eyes of the world are on them. How they behave over this incident will determine how the world views Russia in the coming months and years.

'I think this is a decision point for Russia. Russia likes to paint this as a dispute between it and the EU and it and the West. This is about Russia and the entire international community and Russia risks becoming a pariah state if it does not behave properly.'

Mr Hammond earlier told Andrew Marr on BBC1: 'The Russians will have probably more information about this incident than anyone. They are very close by, this is only a few miles from the Russian border, they have got lots of military planes in the area, they are saying nothing. 

'There is one party in the world who clearly has the ability to snap his fingers and it would be done, and that's Vladimir Putin and for all the fine words we are hearing from Moscow it hasn't happened.'

Mr Hammond, who has chaired a series of meetings with Whitehall officials including representatives of the intelligence agencies, said the evidence available about those who were behind the atrocity was not yet strong enough to stand up in court but it would 'lead the reasonable person to the unavoidable conclusion that this was a missile fired from rebel-held territory, almost certainly a missile supplied by the Russians'.