Ukrainian Buk hit the market in Konstantinovka – NYT experts’ assumptions
According to The New York Times, the missile strike on September 6 on a market in Kostyantynivka that killed 16 people and wounded 37 may have been the result of a malfunctioning missile fired from a Ukrainian Buk air defense system.
The newspaper cites the testimony of people who claim to have heard two launches on the outskirts of the city and its journalists who visited the site of the alleged launches. The newspaper got the information about the rocket launch from a chat on Telegram. Journalists found traces of missiles and tracked vehicles being launched.
The publication also draws conclusions about the direction from which the missile was flying from a video posted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The footage shows the reflection of the rocket on the roofs of cars and the reaction of people who turn around to the sound of the rocket’s flight. The newspaper writes that the trajectory of the flight indicates a launch from Ukrainian-controlled territory. A similar version of the trajectory was written by a group of Russian investigators, the Conflict Intelligence Team, but its founder, Ruslan Leviev, later said that his assumptions were not necessarily correct.
Experts quoted by the NYT believe that the missile could have been driven off course either by a malfunctioning electronics or by damage to the plumage. In other words, the attack was unintentional.
Times journalists examined the site of the strike in Kostyantynivka and passed the information to experts, who said that the size of the holes in the metal facades of the buildings and the debris found at the scene corresponded in size and shape to a 9M38 missile from the Buk system.
In the middle of the day on September 6, a rocket hit the market in the city of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. As a result, 16 people died and 37 others were injured. Ukrainian authorities reported that the Russians had struck with an S-300 missile.
