Almost immediately after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down on Thursday, July 17, messages appeared on the Twitter and VK social media site accounts of the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk Republic(DNR) group, claiming responsibility. But the messages, attributed to DNR commander Igor Strelkov, claimed responsibility for downing an An-26 Ukrainian military plane. The messages were then hastily deleted as it became clear that the plane that was shot down was in fact a civilian commercial airliner.