Rebel commander tweeted about downing Ukrainian military plane
He said: 'We warned you - do not fly in our sky'
But as the identity of downed airliner was revealed, the tweet was deleted
Rebel commander Igor Strelkov - widely believed in Kiev to be a serving Russian military intelligence officer - tweeted a boastful message shortly before Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was downed.
The tweet indicated he thought his rebels had shot down an Antonov-26 military plane of the Ukrainian Air Force. The Antonov is a turboprop transport plane of a type used by Ukraine's forces.
The message read: 'In the area Torez we just hit down An-26, it's lying somewhere in the mine "Progress".
'We warned you- do not fly in "our sky". And here is the video confirmation of the "bird dropping".
'Bird fell fell near the mine, the residential sector was not disturbed. Civilians are not injured.'
Gloat: Ukrainian rebel Igor Strelkov published a tweet indicating he thought his rebels had shot down an Antonov-26 military plane of the Ukrainian Air Force. It now appears it was Malaysian Airlines flight MH17
The images allegedly show an attack by a truck-mounted 'Grad' 122 mm multiple rocket launcher from close to Gukovo in Russia's Rostov region across the frontier into neighbouring Ukraine.
Kiev has been making increasingly strong complaints that Moscow is mounting attacks from its own territory as well as supporting insurgents with weapons and reinforcements.
Moscow has denied such accusations.
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| Destroyed: An armed pro-Russian separatist stands at a site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine |
The head of organization 'Civil Initiative' Dmitry Snegirev claimed today that this footage - from late on 16 July - shows strikes from Gukovo onto Krasnodonsk district in the Lugansk region of Ukraine.
He claimed locals had provided the information about the 'Grad' strikes.
Ukrainian journalist Roman Bochkala wrote on Facebook: 'Here is direct evidence of shelling of Ukraine with "Grad" from the territory of the Russian Federation. Two units are firing in the village Gukovo, Rostov region.'
Claiming it was not the first such strike, he posted a map showing where the alleged attack originated.
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| Power: BUK missile launchers are capable of taking down aircraft the size of a Boeing 777 flying at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, meaning the impact is likely to have blown the plane apart in the sky |
One horrific account of the crash said bodies had fallen out of the stricken plane over the village of Rassypnaya.
More than a dozen corpses of people who appeared to be of Asian descent, some naked, were strewn around the village, said Aleks Noit, who has relatives living nearby.
'Wreckage and bodies fell on the private houses in the village and near the hospital. People in uniform collected the corpses.'
Among the possessions were passports of the victims, which were quickly copied onto the social media.
A Russian news agency reporter stated: 'I am at the Grabovo village, there are debris of a civilian plane, passports of Malaysian and Netherlands citizens are all over it'.
The BUK surface-to-air missile system believed to have shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 is an old Soviet-built weapon designed to engage aircraft, cruise missiles and drones that is still widely used in eastern European states, including Ukraine.
They are capable of taking down aircraft the size of a Boeing 777 flying at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, meaning the intensity of the impact is likely to have blown the plane apart in the sky.
