MOSCOW - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and the head of the European Union Delegation to Russia, Vygaudas Usackas, discussed issues relating to planned investigations of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash near Donetsk and aspects of the crisis in eastern Ukraine at a meeting in Moscow on July 23.
“Various aspects of the crisis situation in Ukraine and problems relating to the investigation of the crash of a Malaysian airliner near Donetsk were discussed in the course of the conversation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Usackas also made comments on the ‘Conclusions on Ukraine’ approved at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on July 22,” it said.
“The Russian side stated its position on the EU’s biased and politicized ‘conclusions’ with regard to the Russian Federation. It was stressed that Russia advocates a transparent and objective international investigation into the crash of the Malaysian airliner with ICAO [the International Civil Aviation Organization] playing the leading role in work with the ‘black boxes,'” the ministry said.
“Moreover, the EU side had its attention drawn to the counterproductive nature of the intentions of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to force his assessment of representatives of southwestern Ukraine as ‘international terrorists’ on international public opinion. This would effectively preclude any effort to influence both parties to the Ukrainian conflict to start a constructive dialogue with the aim of settling the Ukrainian crisis,” the statement said.
