KIEV, Oct. 20 - The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has denied a report by the German magazine Spiegel that the Malaysian airliner flying over Donetsk region on July 17 could have been shot down with a Buk missile system which the militia had reportedly captured from a Ukrainian military unit.

"In this connection the command of the Ukrainian Air Force is authorized to state that reports that a Buk M1 surface-to-air missile system had been captured from a Ukrainian military unit are not true," says a statement posted on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Web site on Monday.