DPR Head Denies Donbass Militias' Involvement in MH17 Flight Crash

Sputnik News

14:33 29.09.2016(updated 14:35 29.09.2016)

Head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko said that Ukraine is responsible for shot down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

DONETSK (Sputnik) – Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was not shot down by militias in southeastern Ukraine, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko said Thursday, adding that Kiev is to blame for the accident.

On Wednesday, international prosecutors from Joint Investigation Team (JIT) revealed a preliminary report on the investigation of the Boeing 777 crash in 2014, which claimed that plane was downed by a missile fired from Buk launcher, which had been brought from Russia and located on territory held by the militias.

"We did not shoot the Boeing. Ukraine is responsible for what had happened and for allowing the plane [to fly over the southeastern territory mired in civil war]," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment over the report's findings it considers biased. The defense ministry said no Russian missile systems, including Buk, had ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Flight MH17 crashed with 298 people on board on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, leaving no survivors. Kiev and independence supporters in Ukraine's southeast have blamed each other for the downing of the MH17 plane.

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