"As you know, Russia was not allowed to join the International Investigation Team [handling the case], so we have always been skeptical and suspicious about the conclusions made too soon and not based on a serious approach. Meanwhile, this information is yet more evidence that Russia is right", Peskov said of van der Werff's investigation.
According to the documents published by van der Werff, the Dutch military intelligence service was unable to find a single Buk missile system capable of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing as it was flying over Ukraine, at the height of the internal conflict between Kiev and self-proclaimed republics in the east of the country.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 as the region was mired in a conflict with the new government following a coup earlier that year. As a result, all 298 passengers – mostly Dutch – and crew on board were killed in the crash.
Kiev blamed the crash, which left no survivors, on the militias in eastern Ukraine, who said they did not have any means of shooting down a plane at that altitude.
Russia has said that JIT ignored the information Moscow gave the Netherlands, the radar data and documents proving the Buk missile that hit the Boeing belonged to Ukrainian government forces.
Peskov has repeatedly said that Russia rejects accusations of its involvement in the crash.
