Saying he expected "nothing from the Russian government," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk at a news conference today outlined a compelling case that shows the Russian government armed, financed and assisted Kremlin-backed guerrillas in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard.
“We have information the training took place on Russian territory,” Yatsenyuk said. “Those who committed this international crime, those responsible will be held accountable. Together with the international community, we will bring to justice everyone responsible, including the country which is behind the scenes, but which supplied the weapons, provided financial support and trained these bastards and supported and even orchestrated this kind of despicable crime.”
Russia has blamed the crash on violence in Ukraine but also called for an independent international investigation even as state-controlled news media outlets give currency to allegations that the Ukrainian government is responsible..
Yatsenyuk said that the Ukrainian government is willing to transfer control of the criminal investigation under way to the international community, led by the government of the Netherlands, who lost the most people in the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight.
But Yatsenyuk said that the Kremlin-backed guerrillas are still obstructing the investigation and still control the area “with guns and with grenade launchers.” He pledged that the Ukrainian government would not undertake any military campaign in the area of the crash site, near Torez in Donetstk Oblast. He spoke during a 45-minute news conference at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center in Kyiv.
Yastsenyuk said that, as of 11 a.m. on July 21, the Ukrainian government had found the bodies of all but 26 victims and that 251 of the bodies have been transferred to refrigerated railway cars in the area. A team of international experts has arrived in Kharkiv and is enroute to the crash scene, Yatsenyuk said. “The key priority for us is to recover the bodies,” he said.
Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine has deployed 810 workers to the crash site, most of whom are from the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations, and that the international expert team on its way to the scene is composed of 31 members, including 23 Dutch, two Germans, two Americans and one person from the United Kingdom.
The prime minister said that the bodies will be taken anywhere that the international investigative team decides, but said that the Netherlands is probably the best choice, considering the losses that the nation suffered in the crash and the fact that it has one of the best forensic pathology centers in the world. “If we get the deal and they allow us to transfer…we will do it as quickly as possible,” he said.
In a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yatsenyuk said “Russia is on the dark side” of the international conflict for its arming and training of those responsible for the shoot-down and war in eastern Ukraine.
“They have to stop. What President Putin has to realize is enough is enough. This is not a conflict between Ukraine and Russia. This is a global conflict and a global threat. The key priority of the international community is to stop Russian aggression. What we expect from Russ and the Russian regime is to de-escalate, withdraw their agents, close the border, stop supporting the bastards and stick to interntional law and to international oblications to present and unfold every peice of evidence thy have and everny single information to get the real peicture of what happened.”
Continuing, Yatsenyuk alleged that Russia supported the “bastards” who shot down the Malaysian jet and Russia violated international law and the United Nations charter by invading and annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March and then supporting terrorism in the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk since April. Together the territories make up 20 percent of Ukraine’s 45 million people.
“This is in the interests of the world to stop this, to preserve peace and stability and to restore international law and order in Europe and not only in eastern Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said.
Yatsenyuk said that the Ukrainian military is prepared to disclose the locations of all of its anti-aircraft weaponry and proof that “the Ukrainian military never used surface-to-air missiles” to defend itself in Russia’s war against the nation.
Yatsenyuk says the Ukrainian government is in possession of photographs showing Russian anti-aircraft vehicles moving into areas of Ukraine controlled by the Kremlin-backed guerrillas, including pictuers of mmissible launchers. He said that the Ukrainain government intercepted phone calls between the guerrillas and the Russian intelligence agents discussing the weapons and the shoot-dow of the plain. He also noted that “these bunch of idiots,” including Russian military intelligence agent Igor Girkin bragged on the Internet about the striking, writing “we down a Ukrainian military plane” before deleting the posts later, once they learned they had struck a civilian aircraft.
“Additionally, we have statements from intelligence and governments that they do share the opinion that flight MH17 was shot down by the missile. It is crystal clear that any Russian drunk guerrilla cannot manage this system. It has to be a well-trained agent.”
And, damagingly if true, Yatsenyuk said that the Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has concluded that the attackers had to “work in collaboration with another radar system that we don’t have on Ukrainian territory” to locate the passenger plane.
“We want an international investigation to get the real facts about who targeted MH17 and who supported and provided the intelligence to those who committed the international crime,” Yatsenyuk said. “I urge the Russian government to responsde to all questions that have been raised.”
