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RUSSIA-UKRAINE
Russia rejects ‘baseless conclusions’ on flight MH17 crash in Ukraine:
UN envoy
UN, May 30, 2018(BSS/TASS)- Russia cannot accept “baseless conclusions” of the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which blames Russia for the 2014 crash of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s UN envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, said on Tuesday.
The Russian diplomat said that Russia’s stance on the MH17 tragedy remains unchanged. “We are outraged by this terrible incident,”.
“We insist on holding a trustworthy investigation. The true culprits should be determined on the basis of factual evidence and brought to justice.”
The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a Boeing-777 passenger plane travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on July 17, 2014, over Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk.
The crash killed all the 283 passengers and 15 crewmembers. There were nationals of ten states among the dead. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) looking into the crash comprises representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.
On May 24, the team gave an update of the state of affairs in the criminal investigation, claiming that “the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17, originates from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile brigade (hereinafter 53rd brigade), a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry rejected all the allegations and said that none of the missile systems belonging to the Russian Armed Forces had ever been taken abroad.
The ministry noted that Moscow had provided Dutch investigators with overwhelming evidence proving that a Ukrainian Buk missile system had been used to bring down the aircraft.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the investigation was reminiscent of the Skripal case as there was no evidence as well.
BSS/TASS/AU/09:20 hrs