MOSCOW – Western states and Kiev have rushed to find Russian involvement in the MH17 crash having no evidence to back their claims, Russia’s Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov has said.
He invited Ukraine to answer 10 questions to prove their commitment to an impartial probe.
He said: ‘1. Immediately after the tragedy, the Ukrainian authorities, naturally, blamed it on the self-defence forces. What are these accusations based on?
‘2. Can Kiev explain in detail how it uses Buk missile launchers in the conflict zone? And why were these systems deployed there in the first place, seeing as the self-defence forces don’t have any planes?
‘3. Why are the Ukrainian authorities not doing anything to set up an international commission? When will such a commission begin its work?
‘4. Would the Ukrainian Armed Forces be willing to let international investigators see the inventory of their air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, including those used in SAM launchers?
‘5. Will the international commission have access to tracking data from reliable sources regarding the movements of Ukrainian warplanes on the day of the tragedy?
‘6. Why did Ukrainian air traffic controllers allow the plane to deviate from the regular route to the north, towards ‘the anti-terrorist operation zone’?
‘7. Why was airspace over the warzone not closed for civilian flights, especially since the area was not entirely covered by radar navigation systems?
‘8. Can official Kiev comment on reports in the social media, allegedly by a Spanish air traffic controller who works in Ukraine, that there were two Ukrainian military planes flying alongside the Boeing 777 over Ukrainian territory?
‘9. Why did Ukraine’s Security Service start working with the recordings of communications between Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the Boeing crew and with the data storage systems from Ukrainian radars without waiting for international investigators?
‘10. What lessons has Ukraine learned from a similar incident in 2001, when a Russian Tu-154 crashed into the Black Sea? Back then, the Ukrainian authorities denied any involvement on the part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces until irrefutable evidence proved official Kiev to be guilty.’