‘No, of course not’: Vladimir Putin rejects Dutch, Australia claims of Russia role in MH17 crash
Investigators have said the Buk missile that brought down the plane over eastern Ukraine belonged to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian army based in Kursk
President Vladimir Putin rejected accusations by the Netherlands and Australia that Russia was responsible for the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, after investigators said they found proof the missile that downed the plane belonged to a Russia-based military unit.
“No, of course not,” Putin replied when asked if a Russian missile had shot down the aircraft, killing all 298 people aboard, most of them Dutch citizens. “There are different versions of this tragedy, but no one takes them into account,” Putin told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.
International investigators said at a news conference in the Netherlands on Thursday that the Buk missile that brought down the plane over eastern Ukraine belonged to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian army based in Kursk, Russia.
Almost four years after the tragedy, which sparked Western sanctions on Russia for its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine, the accusations are fuelling tensions in the wake of the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in England. That March attack, also blamed on the Kremlin, led to the expulsions of dozens of diplomats from Russia’s embassies in Europe and other Western capitals.
