Direct proof of use
The clearest conflict-use record for the 9M38M1 in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War is the MH17 investigation record. The Dutch Safety Board found that flight MH17 was destroyed when a 9N314M warhead launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system detonated to the left and above the cockpit over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014.
The Joint Investigation Team identified the missile family and launch chain in criminal-investigation terms: it said MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile from the 9M38 series launched by a Buk TELAR that had been moved from Russia to a farm field near Pervomaiskyi, an area then controlled by separatists, before being transported back to Russia with one missile missing. The Council of Europe report on MH17 summarizes the Dutch Safety Board finding as a 9N314M warhead of a 9M38M1-type surface-to-air missile.
Sources: Dutch Safety Board MH17 Buk Finding, JIT MH17 Criminal Investigation, PACE Accountability for MH17 Report
Timeline
The documented sequence begins with the shootdown itself on 17 July 2014, followed by the Dutch Safety Board's 2015 air-safety finding, the JIT's 2016 launch-chain finding, and later institutional summaries that tied the launch vehicle to Russia's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and to separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.
The later legal and accountability record did not change the basic weapon-use finding for this catalog entry: the central technical claim remained a Buk-family 9M38-series missile with a 9N314M warhead, with the 9M38M1-type designation stated in the Council of Europe account of the Dutch Safety Board findings.
Sources: Dutch Safety Board MH17 Buk Finding, JIT MH17 Criminal Investigation, PACE Accountability for MH17 Report, OHCHR MH17 Accountability 2025
Operational narrative
In this conflict record, the missile appears as part of a Buk TELAR air-defense engagement rather than as a separately recovered munition. The JIT account places the launch vehicle on a farm field near Pervomaiskyi in eastern Ukraine, says the area was under separatist control, and says the launcher was moved back to the Russian Federation after firing.
The Dutch Safety Board's investigation was an air-safety investigation and did not assign guilt or liability. Its role for this record is technical: it established a Buk surface-to-air missile system, a 9N314M warhead, an eastern Ukraine launch area, and the exclusion of other examined crash causes. Criminal and parliamentary sources add the launch-chain and operator-context findings used here to connect the weapon to the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War.
Sources: Government.nl DSB Investigation, Dutch Safety Board MH17 Buk Finding, JIT MH17 Criminal Investigation, PACE Accountability for MH17 Report
