MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine has not responded to questions posed by the Russian Defense Ministry in regard to the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane that crashed last week, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Thursday.
“I also asked Ukraine a whole range of questions, but neither Ukraine nor any other representative from other countries has answered any of them,” Antonov said on Rossiya-24 television.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17 near the city of Donetsk in Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Kiev blames the independence supporters in eastern Ukraine for shooting down a plane. However, the local militia leaders insist that they do not have the means to shoot down an aircraft flying at 33,000 feet.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that at the time of the crash the Ukrainian military had at least 27 Buk surface-to-air missile systems capable of hitting targets at the attitude of up to 82,000 feet.
Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry has formulated 10 questions for the Ukrainian Air Forces on the crash, the answers to which could help the international community to determine the circumstances of the accident.
"Can the official Kiev comment today on the social media reports, allegedly made on behalf of a Spanish flight dispatcher working in Ukraine, about the shot down Boeing having been accompanied by two Ukrainian military planes?" Antonov asked.
"Why did Ukrainian security services start working with the records of the conversation between Ukrainian dispatchers and the Boeing crew, as well as with the Ukrainian radars data without international representatives?" he added.
