RT News - November 17th 2022 Late

A fifteen year old girl has been seriously injured in Belgorod, Russia by Ukraine forces shelling of Russia's own civilian region. Russia continues to take out energy infrastructure across Ukraine. The front lines of Dobass have seen intensified shelling.

Very in depth reporting on the Ukraine/Poland missile attack.

A report claims Ukrainian forces allegedly executed 39 people in Kherson city, after Kiev's troops took over while another seventy four have reportedly been taken to an unknown location. RT followx Russian troops on the battlefield in Donbass - where the Ukrainian military is stepping up its assault to break through defensive lines.

A former Polish mayor calls the deadly missile incident in the country's east a Ukrainian provocation while Kiev blames Moscow, despite Western countries saying the missile was likely Ukrainian. (Not included in this video, Jacek Savera (Head of the Polish National Security Bureau) has said ".. All the evidence collected by NATO, the US and Poland indicate that the rocket that killed two people in Poland was fired by Ukraine... " Despite all the evidence, Pres. Zelensky continues to blame Russia.

In depth report, MH17: A biased and politically-motivated verdict against Russia - that's Moscow's reaction to The Hague's investigation which found three suspects - including two Russians - guilty in the 2014 accidental downing of flight MH17 in Donbass.

In UK a solar wind "investment company" has gone into administration for £655 million of taxpayer money. "A scandal of huge proportions"
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via RT website 17 Nov, 2022 18:18

---- Germany makes military offer to Ukraine’s neighbour ----

It comes in the wake of a deadly incident in Poland that is believed to have been caused by a Ukrainian missile

Germany has suggested sending combat jets on patrol missions to Poland as an “immediate response” to an incident in which two people were killed in a missile blast in a village not far from the border with Ukraine. The projectile allegedly belonged to Kiev’s forces.

“We will offer Poland enhanced air policing with combat air patrols,” German Defense Ministry spokesman Christian Thiels told a media briefing on Wednesday. “This can happen tomorrow if Poland wants it,” he added.

According to the ministry, the jets would not need to be relocated to Polish territory since they can fly the missions directly from German bases. It also said that Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht was expected to discuss the issue with her Polish counterpart, Mariusz Błaszczak.

The exact number of German Eurofighter jets that could be sent to patrol the Polish skies is also yet to be discussed, according to media reports.

German warplanes carried out similar missions back in July amid the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Warsaw has not commented on Berlin’s initiative so far.

The offer came a day after the missile blast killed two civilians in the Polish village of Przewodow, not far from the country’s border with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky rushed to blame Moscow for the incident, claiming that the projectile was Russian and that its landing on Polish soil was an attack on NATO’s collective security, thereby urging retaliation.

The Polish foreign minister initially claimed that the missile was “Russian-made.” Later, however, Polish President Andrzej Duda admitted that it was likely a Ukrainian air defense missile.

The Russian Defense Ministry called the claims about Moscow’s involvement a “provocation” aimed at escalating tensions.

On Wednesday, a day after the incident, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky continued to maintain it was not a Ukrainian missile that hit the Polish territory. His words sparked a critical reaction from US President Joe Biden, who said “that’s not the evidence.”
https://www.rt.com/news/566726-germany-poland-fighter-jets-patrol/
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via RT website 17 Nov, 2022 16:57

---- MH17 verdict 'politically motivated' – Russia ----

Moscow says the Dutch court’s ruling was based on partisan evidence while its arguments were discarded

The Thursday decision taken by a Dutch court on the MH17 plane crash was absolutely political, the Russian Foreign Ministry has insisted in a statement. Earlier in the day, judges found three people guilty of downing the Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014.

A court in the Hague found two Russian nationals – Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky – as well as a Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko guilty of downing the commerical flight. All the three were sentenced to life in prison in absentia. They are also liable for more than 16 million euros in compensatory damages to the victims’ families.

The Dutch court was “under unprecedented pressure” during the hearings, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated, commenting on the verdict. “There can be no talk of objectivity and impartiality under such circumstances,” it added, pointing to attempts by Dutch “politicians, prosecutors and media to impose a politically motivated verdict” in this case.

Moscow has made it clear that, in accordance with the country's constitution, it will not be extraditing its citizens.

The court’s decision was based on the conclusions of Dutch prosecutors, which, in turn, were built upon the accounts of anonymous witnesses and evidence presented by the Ukrainian Security Service, which is “an interested party” in the case, the ministry argued. Arguments presented by the Russian side, including data declassified by the Russian Defense Ministry were discarded, it added.

The court was “under unprecedented pressure” during the hearings, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated, commenting on the verdict. “There can be no talk of objectivity and impartiality under such circumstances,” it added, pointing to attempts by the Dutch “politicians, prosecutors and media to impose a politically motivated verdict” in this case.

The Russian military earlier published documents that a missile bearing a similar serial number to the one that was found at the MH17 crash site had previously been handed over to Ukraine.

The fact that Kiev failed to close the airspace over the conflict zone before the tragedy did not receive a proper legal assessment either, the Russian Foreign Ministry argued.

“We deeply regret the fact that The Hague District Court disregarded the principle of impartiality of justice in favor of the current political situation,” the ministry’s statement read.

On Thursday, the Dutch court ruled that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made Buk air-defense missile from a field near the town of Pervomayskoe. Once a town in eastern Ukraine, Pervomayskoe became part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) after the region declared independence from Ukraine in 2014. The DPR joined Russia following a referendum this autumn.

At the time of the tragedy, Pervomayskoe was controlled by the DPR militias, according to the verdict.

While the three men were found guilty, the court acquitted the fourth suspect, a Russian national identified as Oleg Pulatov. There was not enough evidence to prove that Pulatov was either involved in transporting the Buk system or firing the missile, the judges ruled.

The court verdict came more than eight years after the tragedy. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over Donetsk Region on July 17, 2014.

Moscow and Kiev traded blame over the incident in the wake of the tragedy. A Joint Investigation Team that was tasked with investigating the crash included officials from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine but not Russia.

Russia’s Alamaz Antey, the producer of the Buk system, released its own analysis of the incident. The company concluded that the plane was shot down by an older version of the Buk missile, which was not used by Russia but remained in service in the Ukrainian military.
https://www.rt.com/russia/566718-mh-17-russia-reaction/
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