The fact that the European Council has cited the international Joint Investigation Team (JIT)'s conclusions about Russian military's alleged involvement in the MH17 crash proves that the probe is politicized, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Sputnik.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2019) The fact that the European Council has cited the international Joint Investigation Team (JIT)'s conclusions about Russian military's alleged involvement in the MH17 crash proves that the probe is politicized, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Sputnik.
In its statement released following a meeting in Brussels on June 20, the European Council welcomed JIT's conclusions and called on Russia to cooperate with the investigation into the deadly crash. However, Russia has repeatedly refuted claims of being involved in the crash as unfounded.
"Conclusions related to Russia, which the European Council adopted at its recent meeting on June 20, cannot be understood as anything but another proof that the European Union continues to pursue a confrontational inertia policy in relations with our country ... The fact that the European Council mentioned JIT's unfounded claims about Russian military's involvement in the crash is another proof that the investigation is politicized and ordered to ... discredit the Russian Federation in the eyes of the global community," Grushko said.
The deputy foreign minister slammed the European Union for ignoring Moscow's readiness to contribute to a "professional and depoliticized" investigation into the MH17 crash.
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 the southeast of Ukraine 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 the Russian city of 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. 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 all the missiles like the one, whose engine the Dutch investigative commission demonstrated as an evidence to prove Russia's involvement in the downing of the plane, were discarded after 2011.
