MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2019) US State Secretary Mike Pompeo called on Russia to make sure that those indicted in having a role in the downing of the MH17 flight in eastern Ukraine are brought to justice, in the wake of the announcement of new suspects' Names by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), leading the probe into the accident.
On Wednesday, the JIT, whose conclusions Russia has called groundless in the past, announced the names of four suspects � three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian national. The investigators claimed that these individuals had been involved in delivering a Buk missile system to a launch site in eastern Ukraine, from where it allegedly shot the Malaysian Boeing. The Russia Foreign Ministry reiterated that the accusations against Moscow by the JIT were unfounded, saying the investigators' statements on Russia allegedly refusing to cooperate on the MH17 case were untrue. Moscow insisted that the JIT had presented no evidence in the case.
"We recall the UN Security Council's demand that "those responsible ... be held to account and that all States cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability." All of those indicted today were members of Russia-led forces in eastern Ukraine. We call upon Russia to respect and adhere to UN Security Council Resolution 2166 (2014) and ensure that any indicted individuals currently in Russia face justice," Pompeo said in a statement released by the State Department late on Wednesday.
Washington welcomed the new revelations in the probe, calling them an "important milestone in searching for truth" and expressed confidence in the Dutch justice systems' ability to bring those responsible for the downing of MH17 to account.
Flight MH17 crashed with 298 people on board on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, leaving no survivors. Kiev and self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's southeast have blamed each other for the downing of Malaysia Airlines plane.
The Dutch-led JIT concluded that the plane was brought down by the missile, which came from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, based near Russia's Kursk. The Russian Foreign Ministry refuted the conclusions as groundless and called the investigation biased.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the JIT accusations of having a role in the MH17 crash and said that these claims were unfounded while the investigation itself was biased. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has not been granted access to the investigation, adding that Moscow would be able to recognize its results only if it is a part of the probe.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that in 2011, the Russian authorities disposed of all the missiles from the series that included the missile whose engine the JIT demonstrated as an evidence to prove Russia's involvement in the downing of the plane.
