MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. Russia continues the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash over Ukraine despite the publication of the report on the catastrophe by the Dutch Safety Board, deputy chief of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) Oleg Storchevoi told reporters on Wednesday.
"Despite the publication of the final report we continue the probe," he said.
The Dutch Safety Board presented on October 13 the final report on the results of the investigation of the crash of MH17 on July 17, 2014. The commission found that the airliner was downed from the Buk antiaircraft missile defence system, and that the missile could have been launched from an area of 320 square kilometres in the east of Ukraine. According to the report authors, MH17 was hit by the 9H314M warhead used on a 9M38 missile. The document says that Ukraine did not close its airspace over the zone of hostilities, although it should have.
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On the same day, Russia’s antiaircraft defence system manufacturer Almaz-Antey presented its own version of the catastrophe backed by real-life experiments. The Almaz-Antey experts also confirmed the version that the fatal missile had been launched from the Zaroshchenskoye community controlled by the Ukrainian military and rejected the international commission’s version of the missile’s launch from Snezhnoye, a town that had been under militia’s control at that time. According to the Dutch Safety Board report the airliner was hit by a missile with the 9H314M warhead. However, Almaz-Antey proved earlier on Tuesday that the Boeing was shot down by an older missile modification with different striking elements, namely 9M38. The production of these missiles had been stopped in 1986. All missiles of this type were withdrawn from service in Russia’s armed forces in 2011.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 Flight MH17 passenger airliner en route from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the area of hostilities between local militias and Ukrainian governmental troops in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region in July last year. All 298 people aboard the airliner were killed in the air crash. Most of the air crash’s victims were Dutch nationals. Versions were put forward that the airliner could have been hit by a surface-to-air or an air-to-air missile.
The Ukrainian authorities and the militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) accused each other of the airliner crash. The UN Security Council resolved on July 21 to hold a comprehensive and independent probe. Russia’s representatives have said on many occasions they are dissatisfied with how the investigation is being carried out and that the data presented by the Russian side are ignored.