The assumptions come from the materials of Muzhenko's interrogation, as well as the expertise of causes of the Il-76 military transport aircraft crash, according to Ukrainian news online edition Chetverta Vlada.
The edition chose to only publish the most relevant documents provided to the journalists by anonymous sources informed of the details of investigation.
As follows from Muzhenko's questioning, he received reports on the operational situation in the Donbas conflict zone three times a day. However, according to the chief of staff, the information they contained was often false or unverified; besides he did not always manage to read the reports right away.
It is noted that at 16:00 and 20:00 on June 13, the ATO headquarters at the SBU sent two reports to Muzhenko, stating that "two groups of militants armed with MANPADs were moving from the city of Luhansk for Luhansk airport to shoot down all the planes landing and taking off."
Read alsoBellingcat: 20 Russian soldiers involved in downing MH17However, during the interrogation, Muzhenko said that this information had nothing special in it, it did not contain specific data and statements about the sources of such information, which would allow to make conclusions on its authenticity.
The command was well aware of the plans of militants, but no document obliged them to respond to the information received, the edition wrote.
Interestingly, when answering the investigator's question on possible cause of the crash, Muzhenko said that the downing of Il-67 might have been a result of information leak about the scheduled flight. However, the chief of staff said he had no reliable data on this subject.
