Rear Adm. John Kirby revealed that it is difficult to believe that the rebels responsible for downing the Malaysian airliner Thursday could have done it without assistance from the Russians.
CNN’s Barbara Starr asked Kirby, "Have you seen evidence that an SA-11 or BUK missile system would cross the border at some point from Russia into Ukraine? And what can you tell us about that system and the sophistication and training that would be needed by Russian separatists to actually be able to operate it effectively?"
Kirby replied that he does not have information about the BUK missile system, but did not rule out that possibility. He called the SA-11- the missile thought to be used in the downing of the airliner- "a sophisticated piece of technology."
"It strains credulity to think that it could be used by separatists without at least some measure of Russian support and technical assistance," he added.
"They didn’t just do it on their own?" Starr followed up.
Kirby reiterated his previous statement, "I said it strains credulity to think that they could do this without some measure of Russian support and assistance."