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BOEING 777 CRASH IN DONBASS

UN Security Council to hold open meeting on Ukraine Friday morning

Expected to focus on the Thursday crash of a passenger Boeing of the Malaysian Airlines

© EPA/JASON SZENES

UNITED NATIONS, July 18, /ITAR-TASS/. The United Nations Security Council will hold an open meeting on the situation in Ukraine, a source at the United Kingdom’s permanent mission, which requested a United Nations Security Council session, told Itar-Tass on Friday.

The meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time (18:00 Moscow time) is expected to focus on the Thursday crash of a passenger Boeing of the Malaysian Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The airlines with about 300 people onboard crashed in the Donetsk region in southeastern Ukraine. All died. None of the Boeing passengers were British citizens.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is expected to deliver a report on the situation in Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, Great Britain’s Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant officially requested an extraordinary session of the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Ukraine. The move was done before the news about the crash, which, according to the British diplomat, was another proof such a meeting was badly needed.

Both Ukraine’s authorities and self-defence forces in its eastern regions deny their involvement in the accident. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put responsibility for the crash on Ukraine, since the accident took place over its territory.

“Obviously, the state over which this incident took place is responsible for this terrible tragedy,” Putin said late on Thursday.

“This tragedy would have never happened should this land was peaceful, if combat operation had not been resumed in Ukraine’s southeastern regions.”

Later on Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a comprehensive and transparent international probe into the crash of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing over Ukraine. He said he was closely watching the development of the situation and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash.

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