WASHINGTON, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – The United States could unveil intelligence assessment on the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine, White House Spokesperson Josh Earnest said Monday.
“I'm not in the position to offer a specific intelligence assessment. It's certainly possible that we may be in the position to do that in the days ahead,” he said.
The Russian military made public some of the data gathered as part of the probe indicating that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed within the operating zone of the Ukrainian army’s self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air Buk missile systems (NATO SA-11 'Gadfly').
When asked to comment on the report, the White House spokesman again accused the Russian government of actively backing independence supporters in eastern Ukraine.
“Russia continues to provide heavy weapons to the separatists. We also know that the Russians are actively engaged in training separatists to use these weapons, including some anti-aircraft weapons,” he said.
The spokesman claimed that the Ukrainian military was not operating anti-aircraft weapons in that area at that time, while stating that Russia’s claims to the contrary are “getting both more desperate and much harder to believe.”
Malaysia Airlines Flight Boeing-777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the town of Torez in Donetsk Region on Thursday, killing all the 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board.
Ukrainian government and militia have been trading blame for the alleged downing of the airliner ever since reports suggested foul play, with independence supporters saying they have no required technology to shoot a target at altitude of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).
