The employee, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed that a Ukrainian Su-25 jet had carried air-to-air missiles out from the Aviatorskoe airbase, near Dnepropetrovsk on the day MH17 was shot down but returned without them.
Based on the interview published Tuesday, it appeared that the pilot of the fighter jet had mistakenly shot at the Malaysian flight and had looked frightened when he landed back at the base.
The source claimed that he heard the pilot saying, "the wrong plane," and "the plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time" upon landing.
The source claimed that three Ukrainian jets flew off from the base on July 17 for a sortie, contrary to the statement by Ukrainian authorities that no operations were carried out that day, but only one returned without its missiles. The other two jets were reportedly shot down.
The story was also reported on Russian and Russian-leaning news websites pravda.ru, rt.com and sputniknews.com.
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a probe on the allegation and has taken the details of the unnamed citizen from Komsomolskaya Pravda for further inquiries, the tabloid reported.
Pro-Russian rebels have secured a hold in the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine, where many of the population are of Russian descent.
Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed the other for the downing of the commercial aircraft.
On July 17, MH17 was shot down near conflict-ridden Donetsk as it was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
-------------------------------------------related
Russia to probe claim Ukraine pilot shot MH17 down by mistake
Russia said today that it is probing a newspaper tip-off claiming that the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 had been mistakenly gunned down by a Ukraine air force pilot.
According to Russia Today, the country's Investigative Committee has spoken to those involved in publishing the news report by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, and has also obtained the contact details of the anonymous witness, said to be a Ukraine national.
“Investigators have talked to the editor-in-chief and journalists of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and have taken the contact details of the Ukrainian citizen [cited in the report],” committee spokesman Vladimir Markin was quoted saying in the Russia Today report yesterday.
Markin reportedly said the committee would speak to the witness to probe Ukraine warfare methods, with further verification to be carried out on the information provided.
In the recent report by Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, an anonymous witness claimed that a Ukraine Air Force pilot had mistakenly shot down the Malaysian aircraft while it was flying over Ukraine's rebel-held areas.
According to several reports by other Russian news sites quoting Komsomolskaya Pravda, the witness who is purportedly an airbase employee, said a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet had returned from a mission without the air-to-air missiles previously attached to it.
The eyewitness claimed that the pilot of the jet had appeared very scared, and had later said the plane that was shot at happened to be in the “wrong place at a wrong time”.
Following the tragic crash in July 17 that claimed the lives of 298 people on board, Ukraine and its neighbour Russia have pointed fingers at each other for allegedly shooting down the civilian aircraft.
In the initial stages, suspicion was cast on surface-to-air missiles that Ukraine claims were fired by Russian-backed rebels, but both Russia and the armed rebels have denied accusations levelled at them.
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