Updated 7:42 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Defense Ministry denounced on Wednesday claims by Kiev authorities about the involvement of the Russian military in the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine.
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, said in an interview with Ukraine's Channel 5 television earlier on Wednesday that SBU had already established the cause of the catastrophe and insisted on arrival of Ukrainian and international experts at the site to "find something that has been missing."
"This is yet another outrageous attempt by the head of Ukrainian security body to use unfounded allegations to convince the public of the alleged involvement of the Russian military in the crash of the Malaysian Boeing in Donbas," defense ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov added that the leadership of the so-called 'anti-terrorist' operation in southeastern Ukraine, including Nalyvaichenko, did everything possible in August to prevent international experts from conducting a preliminary investigation at the crash site.
"That's why Nalyvaichenko's attempt to impose his own plan of investigation to support a deliberately concocted version of the catastrophe simply confirms a popular saying - 'guilty mind is never at ease," the spokesman said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk on July 17, killing all 298 people on board. The cause of the tragedy is still unclear.
The Dutch Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the crash on September 9, saying that the Malaysia Airlines plane broke up in mid-air as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the report on the crash of the MH17 has answered no questions Russia was interested in.
Later in September, Russia has submitted to the United Nation's Security Council a list of questions that it demands to clarify during the investigation of the Malaysian MH17 flight crash in southeastern Ukraine. The demands of the Russian side included examining the communication between air traffic controllers at the Dnepropetrovsk Air Traffic Control Center and Kiev's military authorities, as well as requesting and studying the data from all the countries and organizations involved in the investigation concerning the radar situation in the region.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed that in order to reach national reconciliation in Ukraine there needs to be a fair investigation into all the high-profile crimes of recent months, including the Malaysian flight MH17 crash.
