The crash of a Malaysian Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine must be investigated thoroughly and objectively, Russian President Putin said in a statement. The tragedy underlines the urgent need for a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
Malaysian airliner crashes in E. Ukraine near Russian border, 298 people on board
Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine LIVE UPDATES
Putin’s statement came after he contacted Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to express condolences over the deaths of his fellow citizens in the disaster.
The majority of the passengers of the ill-fated flight, which was apparently shot down over the war zone in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, were from the Netherlands.
Earlier the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), a Russia-based international body tasked with investigation of all civil aircraft incidents in most former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, called for the formation of an international investigative group under the aegis of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN body, to investigate the incident.
The IAC said such a group should be handed over MH17 flight recorders, which are currently being recovered in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region.
Flowers brought to Dutch, Malaysian embassies in Moscow to pay respect to #MH17 victims http://t.co/cOfyUnXekypic.twitter.com/vZ5EgaBF1L
— RT (@RT_com) July 18, 2014
So far two flight recorders from the plane have been reportedly recovered in the region currently controlled by the militia forces. Some militia officials said they intended to hand them over to Moscow because they didn’t trust Kiev to properly investigate the incident.
The probe into the loss of the Boeing-777 is bound to be a
politically loaded one. There was no official confirmation that
the plane was shot down rather than crashed from a different
cause, but the parties involved are already trading blame for the
tragedy.
Both the Ukrainian military and the militias fighting against
Kiev denied shooting at the plane and stated that they had no
capability to take down an aircraft flying 10,000 meters high.
Some politicians and Western media are pointing fingers at Russia, alleging that it is responsible for the Malaysia Airlines plane’s loss. They claim Moscow could have provided a missile launcher, which the Ukrainian militia used to take down the plane.
Kiev in the past few days accused the Russian military of several direct attacks in its territory, including an airstrike, which militia reported as conducted by the Ukrainian military, and a downing of a Ukrainian military plane, which militia claimed was their doing. The Russian military called the accusations absurd.
Hours after the crash of the Boeing 777 was reported, Kiev published what it called intercepted communications between militia officers and their Russian handler to apparently discuss the take-down of a civilian aircraft by the militia. The militia labeled the recording “an amateurish fake.”
#MH17 LATEST: 173 Dutch, 44 Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, 9 British, 4 German, 4 Belgian, 1 Canadian, 1 NZ http://t.co/cOfyUnXeky
— RT (@RT_com) July 18, 2014
There were almost 300 people on board Malaysia Airlines flight 17, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, including 283 passengers and 15 crewmembers. In addition to Dutch travelers and Malaysian crew, there were Australians, Indonesians and citizens of several other countries. Nobody survived the crash.