Ukraine's Representative to UN: Russia won’t evade responsibility for MH17

09.04.2020 11:33

Ukrinform

Russia again tried to use the UN site to obstruct justice over downed flight MH17 but was warned that it would not evade responsibility for that crime.

"Russia initiated on Wednesday the discussion at the UN Security Council on the international investigation into MH17 crash. We could imagine for a moment that Moscow finally decided to inform the Security Council of its willingness to cooperate with the investigation, as required by the Resolution 2166 adopted in 2014. But no miracle happened," Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya said in an exclusive commentary to Ukrinform upon the UN Security Council meeting.

He noted that, as the discussion confirmed, "Russia continues to hysterically abuse the site of the main international security body to discredit the trial that began in The Hague on March 8."

"Moscow cooperates neither with the Joint Investigation Team, which proved the origin of the Russian missile, nor with the Dutch justice system which carries out the criminal proceedings. Such actions are a blatant disregard for the provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 2166, which was voted for including by the Russian delegation," Kyslytsya emphasized.

At the same time, he expressed his firm conviction that Russia would not manage to evade responsibility for the crash. "This fact, by the way, was clearly underscored today by Belgium speaking on behalf of other Joint Investigation Team members – the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia and Ukraine – and other Security Council members," Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said.

According to him, the first step has already been taken: charges were filed against four people. "Later on, there will be more people on trial because it is important to establish not only perpetrators but also instigators of this crime," the diplomat stressed.

For its part, Ukraine will continue to render every possible assistance to the JIT and the trial in the Netherlands and to prove Russia's guilt at the UN International Court of Justice, Kyslytsa assured.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The JIT reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia formally accused Russia of being responsible for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet.

On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called “Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic”; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic.”

The first hearings in the MH17 criminal proceedings took place on March 9 and 10, 2020.