Russia's Military Has A Very Different Idea About What Happened To MH17

Russia is taking a different line than the rest of the world regarding the Malaysia passenger plane that was shot down on Thursday.

Ukraine and the West have presented a mountain of evidence indicating that pro-Russian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 with a Russian-supplied BUK missile system.

In a statement on Monday, Russia's ministry of defense began laying the case for blame on the West.

It claims it saw MH17 detour from its route at the same time a Ukrainian warplane flew overhead and a U.S. satellite flew over Ukraine. And it said Ukraine had four SA-11 BUK missile systems on the ground in separatist territory.

First, the ministry said Russia did has not delivered deliver any SA-11 BUK missile systems to separatists in Ukraine, "or any other weapons."

The U.S., on the other hand, asserts that it has "detected an increasing amount of heavy weaponry to separatist fighters crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine" in addition to gathering "information indicating that Russia is providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in southwest Russia, and this effort included training on air defense systems." The U.S. State Department has pointed the finger at Moscow for weeks.

Russia's defense ministry also said the military has not detected the launch of any missiles near MH17's flight path, and asked the U.S. to share images "if they have them."

The Russians also demanded an explanation from Ukraine's government, saying a Ukrainian warplane flew within 2-3 miles of MH17. It somewhat pointed the finger at Kiev, saying that Ukraine had surface-to-air missiles near separatist-controlled areas at the time of the crash.

In a late-night statement issued Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged other countries who have pointed the finger at Russia to not "use the tragedy to pursue their own political goals." He also repeated his blame of Ukraine, saying the tragedy could have been avoided if Ukraine's military had not increased the scope of operations against pro-Russian separatists in late June.

The Russian military took accusations a bit further Monday, also hinting at some strange speculations. The spokesman asked: "Is it a coincidence that the time of the MH17 crash is the same as a U.S. satellite flew over Ukraine?"

Russian defense ministry hinting that a Ukrainian fighter plane shot down #MH17. http://t.co/MgZ1Dc3Pi3 pic.twitter.com/ItO7h68fN0

- max seddon (@maxseddon) July 21, 2014

On July 17, Malaysia Flight MH17 went down in the town of Torez, which located in separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

Russia immediately held Ukraine's government responsible, while evidence mounted that Russian separatists mistook the civilian passenger plane for a Ukrainian military aircraft.

The West has so far said that pro-Russian separatists are to blame for both shooting down the plane and for subsequently disrupting the international investigation. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry went on all five Sunday-morning talk shows and laid out the evidence in a prosecutorial style.

"Drunken separatists have been piling bodies into trucks and removing them from the site," he said on NBC television on Sunday. "What's happening is really grotesque and it is contrary to everything President Putin and Russia said they would do."