The video, ventures the op-ed, adds little to the mystery of who was really behind MH17. “It could support the narrative that the Ukrainian military was responsible for the disaster.”

Even assuming that the Buk battery in the video was responsible for MH17, its location was to the west of Zaroshchenskoye in Almaz-Antey from where the missile was fired, according to the Russian Buk manufacturer. “The village was then under the control of the Ukrainian Government,” said the op-ed.

The Dutch Safety Board probing MH17, it pointed out, established a 320 sq km area around Zaroshchenskoye and speculated that the fateful rocket originated from an area of mixed government and rebel control.

In short, where did the suspect Buk battery stop before allegedly firing one of its missiles. “If the Russians gave the Buk missiles to the rebels, the other eight or so internet images gathered by Bellingcat should show the vehicles heading west towards Ukraine and not east towards Russia,” added the op-ed. “The Russians have denied giving Buk missiles to the rebels.”

Bellingcat is an investigative website which has been probing the MH17 mystery.

The absence of westward-travelling Buk missiles tallies with the assessment of western intelligence agencies, said the op-ed, that several operational systems in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 were under the control of the Ukrainian military. “This disclosure is contained in a Dutch intelligence report released last October.”

“It implicitly confirmed an earlier US Government ‘assessment’ that listed no Buk battery among the weapons that Russia had given the rebels.”

The op-ed went on to point out that the Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) found that the only anti-aircraft weapons in eastern Ukraine capable of bringing down MH17 at 33,000 feet on 17 July 2014 belonged to the Ukrainian military. “MIVD made that assessment in the context of explaining why commercial aircraft continued to fly over the eastern Ukraine conflict zone in the summer of 2014.”

“MIVD said that the rebels had only MANPADS which could not reach the higher altitudes.”

Initial investigations in fact established, said the op-ed, that an undisciplined Ukrainian military team was responsible for the MH17 disaster.