Russia’s UN envoy says UN SC resolution on setting up MH17 tribunal is a blind alley

Draft resolutions submitted to the UN Security Council by Malaysia and the Netherlands and a statute of international tribunal to establish criminal responsibility for those guilty in downing the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine is a blind alley, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the world organisation Vitaly Churkin told reporters on Thursday.

“Personally, I can see no prospects for these documents,” Churkin said. “We should put them aside and await results of the investigation and then think how efficiently the court proceedings should be organised.”

The Boeing 777-200 of the Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Region, some 60 km from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defence forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers aboard the aircraft – 298 people from ten countries – died. Most of the passengers – 196 people – were Dutch citizens.
On July 21, 2014 the UN Security Council demanded a thorough and unbiased investigation.

In early September, the Dutch Safety Board said in its preliminary report that the MH17 flight broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside. A surface-to-air or air-to-air missile that allegedly hit the plane is considered the biggest factor behind the crash.

Kiev authorities and militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have blamed each other for the plane downing.