Putin says reports on MH17 crash provide no evidence of Russia’s guilt

Russian Politics & Diplomacy June 20, 2019, 17:17

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The latest reports on the Malaysian Boeing airliner shot down over the Donbass region in 2014 provide no evidence of Russia’s guilt, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his annual televised Q&A session on Thursday.

"What we saw and what was provided as evidence of Russia’s guilt absolutely does not suit us as there is no evidence there and everything that was provided does not speak about anything," Putin said.

The 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 crewmembers - citizens of 10 states, were killed in the crash. Despite active combat operations, the Ukrainian authorities did not close the airspace over the Donbass region for international flights. The Joint Investigative Team comprising representatives of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine was set up to probe the air crash.

On Wednesday, the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) looking into the incident, named three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian citizen suspected of being involved in the Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine in July 2014. The list of suspects includes Igor Girkin, known under the alias of Strelkov, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko.

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