MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board.
Four days later, UN Security Council Resolution 2166 was adopted unanimously, to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines.
The Dutch Safety Board was chosen to head the official international probe into the MH17 crash.
"We have been hugely disappointed that during the year which passed after the tragedy all our attempts to push the investigation, to make it transparent, to provide information… was just stonewalled," Lavrov said at the Russia-ASEAN ministerial round in Malaysia.
According to Lavrov, Russia was among the initiators of the Resolution 2166, but hardly any of the UN Security Council provisions had been implemented, because the investigation has turned out to be neither "international," nor "independent."
If the investigation was more transparent, Russia would be ready to discuss the mechanism of bringing those responsible to justice, Lavrov said.
"The UNSC should consider the implementation of that resolution and should call upon everyone to strictly abide by its provisions," Lavrov said, stressing the UN had never established a tribunal for such cases.
Last month, Malaysia submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for the creation of an independent UN tribunal to identify and prosecute those responsible for the MH17 disaster.
Russia vetoed the proposal, insisting that the final report by the Dutch Safety Board must come first, and that the tribunal might be aimed at concealing investigation failures. The final report is due in October.
