R

ussian Ambassador to Indonesia Mikhail Y. Galuzin said Monday that Russia was “deeply dissatisfied” with the results of a Dutch-led investigation into the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

All 298 people on board the Boeing 777 died when it broke apart in mid-air on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.

On Sept. 28 the joint investigation team, comprising representatives of the Netherlands, Ukraine, Australia, Malaysia and Belgium, presented the preliminary results of its investigation into the crash in the Donbass region.

The team said the plane had been shot down with a BUK missile fired from a mobile launcher brought into the country from Russian territory, drawing criticism from Russia that the probe was “biased and politically motivated”.

“We are deeply dissatisfied with the tentative result” announced by the team, Galuzin said. The Russian government on Monday summoned the Dutch Ambassador in Moscow, Renee Jones-Bos, to convey its reasons for not accepting the findings of the investigation.

“This kind of BUK missile is not produced in Russia and is not on the list of weapons used by the Russian army,” Galuzin told a press briefing.

“We insist on objective, unbiased investigations, which should take into account all information, including the information of the Russian side that has already been made public and been given to the Dutch-led joint investigation team,” Galuzin said.

The missile “could not have been launched from rebel-controlled territory of Ukraine. It could have been launched from the eastern side of the plane”, he said.

He said Russia demanded that the investigation team include Russia’s data in the next investigation.

Wilbert Paulissen, the head of the Dutch national detective force on the team, was quoted as saying that the missile that brought down MH17 had been “brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and after launch was subsequently returned to Russian Federation territory”.

Russia’s foreign ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow regretted “the low quality of the criminal investigation”.

The ministry stated that it considered the probe “biased and politically motivated”.

In response, the Dutch foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in the Netherlands, reports said. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said, “[...] Russia should respect the results [...] rather than impugning the investigation and sowing doubt,” AP reported Saturday.

Russia hopes that radar data from state-owned arms maker Almaz-Antey showing the air traffic situation at the time and at the site of the crash will shed light on the circumstances of the disaster, its foreign ministry said. (sha)