
The Malaysian airliner was shot down at approximately 17:30 (Moscow time). The wave of coverage commenced with the posting on the social media page of a Russian terrorist Girkin (also known under his pseudonym “Strelkov”) at 17:50. Russia’s mainstream media routinely uses postings on this page as the primary source for their news stories. In his commentary, Girkin boasted that the terrorists managed to shoot down another Ukrainian plane, specifically mentioning what he believed at the time to be a Ukrainian AN-26 airplane, shot down in the area of Torez.
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