Russia doctored two satellite images so it could blame Ukraine in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a Boeing 777 that was downed by a missile in July 2014, the Telegraph said based on a report by the Bellingcat investigative team.

The Boeing 777, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, had carried 298 passengers and crew, all of whom died.

Bellingcat noted it had analyzed satellite photos the Russian Ministry of Defense presented to the public at a press conference four days after the incident; the imagery suggested that a Ukrainian Buk-M1 missile launcher had been positioned in range of the aircraft.

But "the forensic analysis conducted by the Bellingcat investigation team clearly and undoubtedly demonstrates that the dates of the satellite photos have been falsified, and that the photographs were digitally modified using Adobe Photoshop CS5 software," Bellingcat detailed.

The investigative team compared historical satellite imagery of vegetation, soil structure and a liquid spreading over the ground as it leaked from a stationary vehicle, according to the Telegraph. It determined that one image was taken no later than July 15, two days before the crash.

Ukraine and the West have long suspected that Flight MH17 was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile fired by Russian soldiers or Moscow-backed separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press. The Kremlin staunchly denies that claim, though the Russian Ministry of Defense had no immediate reaction to the latest revelations.

A Russian defense conglomerate, meanwhile, has proposed to shoot down another Boeing 777 to recreate the incident and determine which missile system was used to down the jetliner, the Guardian reported.

Almaz-Antey, which makes the missiles, said such an experiment would help prove its thesis that the attack could only have been carried out by using the discontinued Buk-M1 system, which is used by Ukrainian -- but not Russian -- forces.

"They would probably buy an old out-of-service plane, fly it on autopilot, and then shoot it down over a military testing ground," Igor Korotchenko, a Russian defense analyst, told the British newspaper. "The aim would be to get all the angles the same and show the damage," he added.