UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s envoy to the United Nations has accused the Kiev regime of spreading falsified evidence related to the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane in the country's east.
“Russia’s Defense Ministry has formulated a whole range of issues, and we hope other issues will be posed by international investigators. Kiev has been so far acting in a wrong direction by spreading fabricated fakes, including at the UN Security Council,” Vitaly Churkin said.
Experts believe that the Malaysian plane that crashed on July 17 killing all 298 people onboard was downed by a Buk air defense system or a Su-2 light bomber aircraft. Ukraine’s Army has Buk systems in service, also known as SA-11, while militia insists it has no such systems.
The diplomat said the video unveiled by Ukraine’s interior minister showing Buk systems traveling to Russia was in fact recorded on the territory controlled by the Kiev regime.
“If it [Kiev] fired this means that militia is not behind that,” Churkin said adding that armed clashes in Ukraine are the prime cause of the July 17 crash.
Churkin said the alleged recordings of intercepted phone conversations between Russian military intelligence officers and Donetsk militia discussing the MH17 flight in Ukraine are also fake.
Ukraine’s Security Service claimed that Ihor Bezler, a commander of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk’s troops stationed in the village of Horlivka, admitted the Malaysian plane was shot down by militia manning the Chernukhinsk checkpoint nearby.
Kiev has to answer many questions, including on the actions of its air traffic controllers and why the plane had flown 500 kilometers (350 miles) off course, as well as the reasons behind relocating one of Buk battalions on July 17 to the area close to the territory controlled by militia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier the tragedy would not have happened if military actions had not been renewed in the country’s east.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Monday demanding that those responsible for this incident be held to account and all military activities be immediately ceased near the crash site to allow for security and safety of the international probe.