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No tribunal into MH17 crash possible without UN Security Council — Russian diplomat

The setting up of any tribunals is premature at this stage, as the current task is to finish investigation into this tragic incident, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says
The site of MH17 crash in Ukraine TASS/Mikhail Pochuev
The site of MH17 crash in Ukraine
© TASS/Mikhail Pochuev

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. No tribunal into the MH17 air disaster in Ukraine is possible in bypassing the UN Security Council, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday.

"The setting up of any tribunals is premature at this stage, as the current task is to finish investigation into this tragic incident," he said.

"Investigation must be completed, and then further possible moves could be considered. So far, everything that was connected with activity over a UN Security Council resolution on the setting up of a tribunal, had a serious political connotation," the diplomat said.

The matter should not be politicized, "the task is to thoroughly look into everything and establish the truth," Gatilov said.

On 17 July 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on flight MH17 from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Most passengers — 193 people — were Dutch nationals. The suspected cause of the crash is that the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. The Dutch Safety Board is conducting the investigation.