Russia said today that a missile did bring down an airliner over the Black Sea, killing all 78 on board.
The Ukraine appears poised to accept it was to blame.
The chief of the Russian commission investigating the crash, Mr Vladimir Rushailo, said the Tu 154 airliner had indeed been hit by a missile.
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It "crashed because it was hit by the warhead of an anti-aircraft missile while flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk at its planned altitude along an international route, which was not subject to any restrictions," he said.
Hours after the crash, US officials, who had examined spy satellite data, said that the tragedy had been caused by an S-200 missile fired mistakenly by Ukrainian forces during military exercises on the Crimean Peninsula, which juts into the Black Sea.
Pressure has been mounting on Ukraine's leadership to take responsibility for the crash.
Today, for the first time, a Ukrainian official admitted that the plane may have been hit by Ukrainian fire.
"The reason for the crash could be an unintentional hit by an S-200 missile during the Ukrainian air defence exercises," said Mr Yevhen Marchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Security Council and another member of the investigatory commission.
He said it could have been the result of a malfunction in an anti-aircraft missile.
Yesterday, investigators said that metal fragments similar to shrapnel contained in the missile's warhead were found in victims' bodies and in the body of the plane.
AP