Britain's Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall Grant has said his country is convinced that the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Donetsk region was triggered by a surface-to-air missile and has called on Russia to facilitate the organization of full access to the plane crash site.
“We can draw only one conclusion that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a civilian airliner carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew, was hit by a blast fragmentation warhead – a warhead that is typically fitted to surface-to-air missiles. We know that seconds before flight MH17 dropped out of contact, a surface-to-air missile launch was detected from a separatist-controlled area in south-eastern Ukraine. We also know from an intercepted conversation that a known separatist leader was overheard claiming that a separatist faction had shot down an aircraft at the time of MH17’s disappearance,” he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Sept. 19.
Grant said that allegations about Ukraine’s guilt in the plane crash were beneath criticism.
“We have heard contradictory stories that MH17 was brought down by a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet, either by missile or by gunfire or that it shadowed MH17, using its crew and passengers as human shields. But the damage found on the wreckage of MH17 is not consistent with the behavior of an air to air missile, nor does it relate to a gun attack,” he said.
He also noted that there was no evidence of unusual flight management activity in that area at that time and the preliminary report contained a full transcript of conversations between MH17 and Ukrainian Air Traffic control and that the transcripts of the Ukrainian side had been fully confirmed by data that was traced back from the black box.
In addition, he said that Russia had supplied modern weapons, tanks and artillery to militants.
“The Russian Federation bears significant responsibility for the violence and instability in south-eastern Ukraine. Responsibility that, at the very least, means Russia has questions to answer about the tragic downing of MH17,” Grant said.
He also noted the need to get access to the plane crash site and conduct a separate criminal investigation that would determine those responsible and bring them to justice.
“Firing on OSCE monitors, such as occurred last weekend near the crash site, does not create the conditions for a resumption of the investigation into how MH17 came down and who was responsible. If the Russian Federation shares the wish of the international community to see progress on both the Dutch Safety Board final report and resolution 2166 then we call on them to ensure that full, safe access to the crash site is restored immediately,” the British diplomat said.
