Russia shot down MH17 because they believed it was a Ukrainian military transport

Shortly after MH17 crash, Ukranian Separatist leader Igor Strelkov posted that the separatists had successfully shot down an A-26 ukranian military transport plane on a Russian news media platform.This post was quickly deleted once the plane was discovered to be a civilian passenger flight^[1]. That same day, LifeNews, a Russian government loyal news network, began reporting on the crash. The anchorwoman stated, “The rebels say they were able to shoot down another transport plane of the Ukrainian Air Force...A Ukrainian An-26 was flying, and suddenly it was struck by a missile, an explosion was heard, and the plane began to fall.”^[2] Russian-government backed news networks now deny Russia’s involvement in shooting down MH17. In September of 2016 an international investigative team determined that the Buk missile responsible for taking down MH17 was transported into separitist held territory in Ukraine by Russia. In May of 2018, The Dutch led investigation team (JIT) corroborated this claim, determining that the Buk missile did belong to Russia^[3].