According to the
Russian foreign minister, accusations against Moscow were not based on facts.
MOSCOW, May 30
/TASS/. Moscow has been deliberately accused of being involved in the MH17
crash ahead of important international events, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov said, addressing the Primakov Readings conference in Moscow on
Wednesday.
According to him,
accusations against Moscow were not based on facts. "They want us only to
admit that it indeed was our military unit and our Buk missile system - that’s
all," Lavrov pointed out. "The investigation is not over yet but our
offers of assistance are being rejected," he added.
"I think they
decided to make public accusations in light of the upcoming important
international events," the Russian top diplomat noted. "They seek to
spoil the mood but they are trying to employ useless tools," he said.
Lavrov also said that
Australia and the Netherlands had sent an official note to Russia demanding
talks on compensations to the families of the crash victims though the investigation
had released only preliminary conclusions. "What do they mean by that? How
can they expect us to deal with them normally when they show such an
approach?" the Russian foreign minister said. "They should learn good
manners. I have already said that many have lost the culture of diplomacy. It
is a sad thing which seems to be contagious," he noted.
MH17 crash case
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.
Nevertheless, on May
25, Australia and the Netherlands issued a statement saying that they
"hold Russia responsible for its part in the downing of flight MH17."
