New evidence has emerged that a missile strike at a busy market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka that killed at least 16 people was caused by a Ukrainian missile.
The missile struck the city of around 67,000 residents in the eastern Donetsk Oblast on Sept. 6, with the government in Kyiv claiming that the blast, which killed 16 and injured more than 30 others, was caused by a Russian missile.
The New York Times reported that the missile strike was so devastating that some of the people injured by the strike were wounded “beyond recognition.” Within two hours after the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately blamed Russian “terrorists” for the attack, and Western-aligned mainstream media outlets followed suit. (Related: RIGGED: Members of the British media have already written articles blaming Russia for a dirty bomb attack in Ukraine that hasn’t even happened yet.)
However, an investigation using evidence collected and analyzed from the strike suggests that the strike was actually caused by a Ukrainian missile.
Measurements of the holes caused by the missile as well as the fragments found at the scene are consistent in size and shape with the 9M38 missile, which is fired by the Buk, a mobile surface-to-air missile system operated in large quantities by Ukraine.
The measurements were confirmed when reporters reviewed other missile fragments recovered from multiple locations in Ukraine that were fired by the S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and compared them with missile fragments confirmed to be fired by the Buk. To make sure, these same reporters even compared the measurements of these fragments with fragments from two different American-supplied air defense systems.
This investigation confirmed that the shapes of the holes left by the strike at the Kostiantynivka market, as well as the missile fragments left behind, were most likely caused by a 9M38 missile fired by a Ukrainian-owned Buk system.
The missile, which has a maximum range of over 17 miles, may have been fired from just 10 miles away from Kostiantynivka. Witnesses report that they either heard or saw Ukrainian forces firing Buk surface-to-air missiles from the town of Druzhkivka, around 10 miles to the northwest.
This means that when the missile struck the market, it still had unspent fuel in its rocket motor. This unspent fuel likely detonated or burned upon the missile’s impact, causing a more devastating explosion.
Kyiv claims it is still “investigating” the market missile strike
The public relations unit of Kyiv’s secret police, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), claimed that an investigation is still underway. When asked to comment about the report, the SBU stood firm in blaming the Russians for the strike, which it said involved a Russian-owned S-300 missile system.
“This is evidenced, in particular, by the identified missile fragments recovered at the scene of the tragedy,” said the SBU, adding that the investigation was also examining other materials – none of which the SBU has shared – that supposedly prove it was the Russian forces who struck the market.
Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak further claimed in a statement that “society will definitely get an answer on what exactly happened in Kostiantynivka,” and that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were studying the reports and the evidence to establish “the legal truth” behind the missile strike.
Podolyak further claimed that the report alleging that Ukraine struck its own people as well as other publications by “foreign media” that raise doubts “about Russia’s involvement in the attack” causes “the growth of conspiracy theories, and therefore will require additional legal evaluation by investigative bodies.”
“In the meantime, we should not forget: It was Russia that started the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia is responsible for bringing war to our country,” added Podolyak. “And it is Russia that regularly inflicts massive missile, bomb and drone strikes on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population.
Podolyak then went on to erroneously claim that Ukraine “exclusively” conducts actions of a defensive nature within territory claimed by Kyiv.
By Arsenio Toledo