Gen. Petrovskiy of Russian military intelligence GRU may be involved in downing MH17: international investigation team.

Gen. Petrovskiy of Russian military intelligence GRU may be involved in downing MH17: international investigation team. (NRC).

One of the individuals who may have been involved in the downing of flight MH17 according to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM), was recognized by Ukraine as a former high ranking Russian intelligence officer. It is the first indication that the Dutch Prosecution Service is considering the involvement of high ranking Russian (former) servicemen.

SBU IDENTIFIES PETROVSKY

As it turns out, one of the tapped conversations was disclosed earlier by the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU), shortly after the crash. In this “reconstruction”, the SBU identifies one of the callers as “Sergey Nikolayevich Petrovsky”, an officer with the Military Intelligence Service (GRU).

In interviews, “Khmury” - as Petrovsky likes to be called - said he was discharged from the Russian army in April 2014 with the rank of major general. Immediately after leaving the army, Petrovsky joined the Russian rebel leader Igor Gorkin, better known as Strelkov.

At the time of the crash, Petrovsky was an intelligence officer and Strelkov’s deputy commander in Donetsk. In the SBU’s sound clip, Petrovsky’s conversation partner greets him as “Nikolayevich”.

The Netherlands run the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), an international investigation team including Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. Because of the tense relationship with Russia, the investigation has a highly sensitive character. Moscow is denying any involvement in the crash and claims MH17 was probably shot down by a Ukrainian jet.

The Organized Crime Office points out that this scenario is still under investigation. By now, the Netherlands have officially requested Russia for information. Chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke is hoping to travel to Moscow shortly in order to view Russian evidence on the flight crash. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service would not comment on the issue this morning. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was unable to give a reaction as well. Read the full story here.