MOSCOW, June 12. /TASS/. The Dutch prosecutor’s office in its statements concerning the investigation of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster over Donbass tries to divert suspicion from the Ukrainian armed forces, while investigators ignore discrepancies in testimonies made by the Ukrainian side, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.

In particular, she pointed to conflicting statements by prosecutors concerning the Ukrainian air defense systems Buk, which were in the zone of the tragedy.

"In their statements Dutch prosecutors said - as far as we can understand, in order to divert any suspicion from Ukraine - that the Ukrainian air defense systems in the area of the tragedy did not function on the day of the disaster," Zakharova said.

"In the meantime, the whole world has seen video footage showing Ukrainian officials filmed posing in front of operational Buk systems deployed in the area of the so-called anti-terrorist operation (Kiev’s military crackdown on Donbass - TASS). The prosecution states outright that the air defense systems Buk were stationed not only around the site of the tragedy, but very close to it," Zakharova said.

She stressed that this is said against the background of accusations against Russia, which allegedly tries to mislead the investigation and juggles with facts.

"How come the investigators who make such confusing statements for some reason have no questions addressed to Ukraine over many discrepancies?" Zakharova said. She stressed that the investigation was keen to sidestep the issue of Kiev’s responsibility for failure to close the airspace over the zone of hostilities on the ground.

"It is no good that in relation to a number of questions examined in court references were made to data received from the Ukrainian security service SBU, which is certainly a biased party," Zakharova said.

She pointed out that during the MH17 crash hearings which resumed in the Hague in June the prosecution tried to impress the court and rained it with the details of its work that often looked rather controversial.

"Apparently, the investigation is concerned not so much about the power of its arguments, as the propaganda effect of hours-long statements," Zakharova said. She remarked that now it was essential to let the judges shape their own opinion of the investigation’s findings.

Zakharova recalled that Russia was not a party to the criminal proceedings underway at the Hague District Court. Russia is monitoring the judicial proceedings from the standpoint of the observance of the rights of Russian citizens who face the charges.

Disaster and investigation

A passenger Boeing-777 of Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur (flight MH17) was shot down over the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The disaster claimed the lives of 298 people on board - citizens of ten countries. A Joint Investigation Team was created by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine to probe into the disaster.

In June 2019, experts said they had identified a group of four suspected accomplices - former chief of the Donetsk People’s Republic militia (sometimes referred to as the Donetsk Republic’s Defense Minister) Igor Girkin, also known under the nickname Strelkov, and his subordinates Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. According to the investigators, the first three men on the list three are Russian citizens, while Kharchenko has Ukrainian citizenship. They are accused of allegedly delivering an air defense system Buk to Ukraine from Russia. The trial began in the Netherlands on March 9. Oleg Pulatov is represented by a group of one Russian and two Dutch lawyers. The three others are being tried in absentia.

Russian officials have repeatedly expressed distrust towards the JIT’s findings and pointed to the groundlessness of the charges and the reluctance to take into consideration Russia’s arguments.