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Russia in confidential consultations with the Netherlands on MH17 crash — senior diplomat

The tragedy happened in July 2014, investigation has been ongoing since then

© Valentin Sprinchak/TASS

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MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Russia is having confidential consultations with the Netherlands on MH17 flight that was downed over Donbass in July 2014, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Friday.

"Such consultations are underway, but we agreed that the process will have a confidential character," the diplomat noted.

The first trilateral meeting involving Russian, Dutch and Australian representatives on the MH17 case was held in March.

A Boeing-777 passenger plane operated by Malaysian Airlines crashed on July 17, 2014, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in the east of the Donetsk region. As many as 283 passengers and 15 crew — nationals of 10 states — were killed. Despite combat operation on the ground, Kiev opted not to close airspace for international passenger aircraft over the area. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) including representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine was set up. Russia has repeatedly stated it mistrusts the JIT’s findings as being ungrounded. Moreover, the team has been reluctant to use Russia’s arguments in the course of the probe.

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