The Buk missile used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014 originated from Russia, according to Dutch prosecutors investigating the incident. The findings were conveyed to victims' relatives in the Netherlands on Wednesday, The Telegraph reported.
According to the findings, the missile was fired from eastern Ukraine that was controlled by pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukrainian forces since April 2014. They said the vehicle used to launch the missile returned to Russia after firing it, Wall Street Journal reported. The team has furnished photos of the missile launcher. They said the aircraft was not shot down by a military plane because there was no aircraft in the vicinity at the time.
However, Russia denied the team's findings, calling them false and politically motivated, according to Reuters. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the investigation had ignored "incontestable evidence from the Russian side". She added that the country had been blocked from fully participating in the team's investigation and alleged that the Ukrainian government had used fabricated evidence to influence the overall results.
The United Nations Security Council had proposed an international criminal tribunal to look into the incident, but Russia had rejected the idea. There were 298 civilians travelling in the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight when it was shot down in Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Russia has denied any involvement in the incident.
Relatives of 33 victims filed a law suit at the European Court of Human Rights in May accusing Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, of orchestrating the attack. On Monday, the Russian defence ministry ministry released radar data showing that no missile flew towards MH17 from the Snizhne in eastern Ukraine at the time.The team that investigating the incident includes prosecutors from from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
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