Ukraine, Russia Say Missile Likely Hit Jet

Russia and Ukraine ended a week of defensive denials Friday and formally acknowledged that a wayward Ukrainian antiaircraft missile most likely downed a Russian passenger jet last week, killing all 78 people on board.

“It is painful for me, as a citizen of Ukraine, to say so, but there is a lot of information bearing this version out,” said Yevhen Marchuk, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

The Siberian Airlines jet exploded above the Black Sea on Oct. 4 during a flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia. Most of those aboard were naturalized Israeli citizens originally from Russia who were returning to visit relatives during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Russian officials initially suggested terrorism as the probable cause of the explosion but were forced to acknowledge the likelihood of a wayward missile as evidence accumulated. Investigators found shrapnel holes in the plane’s fuselage and pieces of missile casing floating amid the wreckage. In addition, according to some reports, a U.S. spy satellite tracked the missile.

Even after Russia changed course last weekend and pointed to a missile as the likely cause, Ukrainian officials, including President Leonid D. Kuchma, continued to reject the possibility.

“This is very sad for Ukraine, very sad. This [acknowledgment] should have been done five days ago, when it was obvious to everyone,” said Mikhailo Pohrebinski, director of the Kiev Center of Political and Conflict Studies. “We’ve had inadequate responses from the generals, from the president.”

Just before the jet exploded, the Ukrainian navy and air defense forces test-fired a long-range, S-200 antiaircraft missile about 200 miles away. The area in which the jet was traveling had been left open to civilian planes because it was technically out of range of the missile (the S-200 has a theoretical range of about 185 miles) and because the intended targets were all within about 25 miles of the Russian-run Opuk firing range.

Ukraine sent documentation of the targeting exercises to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin last weekend, and Putin sent it back with a terse message that the information was “not sufficiently complete.”

In recent days, Ukrainian defense officials arrived in the southern city of Sochi to join the high-level Russian investigation led by Vladimir B. Rushailo, head of the Russian Security Council. Rushailo told a news conference in Sochi that an antiaircraft missile downed the plane. He did not name the source of the missile, but Marchuk conceded that the missile “could have” been fired by Ukraine.

In announcing its preliminary findings, Rushailo’s commission didn’t provide an explanation for what may have caused the Ukrainian missile to go so far off course.

“This tragic accident could have taken place as a result of a malfunction of the antiaircraft complex’s systems,” Marchuk suggested.

In Ukraine, some argued that Russia bears at least partial blame.

“The Russians should also take responsibility, since the Ukrainian training exercises were taking place on a Russian training ground, with the participation of Russian experts, who also should have taken responsibility for security,” said independent military analyst Leonid Poliakov.

The incident has been particularly awkward for Kuchma, who served as director of a Soviet missile factory before Ukraine became independent in 1991. On Thursday, he stirred a wave of criticism by suggesting that the incident was an ordinary mistake.

“Look around the world, including in Europe, at the most recent events,” Kuchma said in remarks broadcast on national television. “What, are we the first or the last? There’s no need to make a tragedy of it, if there was some mistake. Mistakes happen everywhere.”

Critics denounced Kuchma’s handling of the incident.

“There are two ways to explain this prolonged denial,” said Mykola Tomenko, analyst with Ukrainian Institute of Political Science. “One is that the president knew the truth all along and knowingly denied it. Or he didn’t know. But despite his constant efforts to increase his powers, he is fantastically unwilling to take responsibility.”

Dmitry V. Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank, said Kuchma’s reaction and of his military were an embarrassing throwback to Soviet times.

“If there was no pressure on Russia’s part, the Ukrainian leaders would have balked and resisted to the very end,” Trenin said. “They would have never acknowledged it. It was a purely Soviet approach: ‘It could not have happened, because it could never happen by definition.’ And once they were cornered like petty thieves, they started to mumble something incoherent.”

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Times special correspondent Mary Mycio in Kiev, Ukraine, and Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.