We regret ‘baseless’ accusations by intl probe Russian military complicit in MH17 crash – Moscow

Russia called regrettable the “absolutely baseless” accusations made by the international investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which said the Russian military was involved in the incident.

On Wednesday, the Dutch-led Joint Investigations Team (JIT) accused three Russians nationals and a Ukrainian of playing a significant role in the downing of MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. All 298 people onboard died back then.

The JIT said the individuals, who were fighting on the side of the rebel forces in eastern Ukraine, received a Buk surface-to-air missile from Russia, possibly provided by the Russian military. The Russian foreign ministry said such accusations “deserve only regret.”

On top of that, the allegations were not backed up by reliable evidence and followed a “not quite coherent” line of argument. At the same time, the ministry maintains, JIT still opts to ignore information provided by Moscow.

That includes declassification of military data on the Buk missile, publication of radar data and an experiment conducted to show the exact effect that the projectile has on a plane cockpit

“Since day one after the tragedy Russia was most interested in establishing the truth and willing to cooperate with the investigation,” the ministry said.

That includes declassification of sensitive military data on the Buk missile, radar data and “documents” proving the projectile that downed the passenger jet was a Ukrainian one.

The foreign ministry noted that while Russia was only given a secondary role in the investigation, Kiev enjoyed full membership. That allowed Ukraine “to fabricate evidence” and ditch any responsibility for not closing its airspace. The decision to keep the airspace open was criticized by the 2015 report of the Dutch Safety Board (which led the technical part of the probe into the crash).

Under such circumstances, we have legitimate questions about the work of the JIC. That underscores our previous concerns about the [investigation] process being biased and one-sided.

That said, Moscow is still ready to cooperate on the matter to bring the actual perpetrators to justice.