Putin insists on full, unbiased investigation into crash of Flight MH17

© EPA/SANDER KONING

Russia, just like Malaysia, insists on a full-fledged and unbiased investigation into the tragic incident with the Malaysian passenger aircraft, which crashed in Ukraine's east over three months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in the Chinese capital on Monday.

"Russia just like Malaysia insists on a full-fledged, unbiased and all-embracing investigation into this catastrophe in full compliance with the UN Security Council resolution," Putin said, adding that "claims that the territory of the crash is under control of the so-called pro-Russian separatists are absolutely ungrounded."

Military forces are shooting constantly at the Boeing crash site in Ukraine's war-torn east, and that hampers full-scale operation at the crash site, Putin added.

"But in any case we welcome that Malaysian specialists are finally permitted to full-format participation in the probe, but not only in the work of the so-called technical committee. I am confident that our specialists will also make their necessary contribution in full-scale investigation of this tragedy," the Russian president noted.

Putin also offered condolences to the families of those who died in the air crash. "I would like to offer sincere condolences to the families of air crash casualties and all friendly people in Malaysia over the crash of the Malaysia Airline jet in east Ukraine on July 17," Putin said.

The crash and investigation

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 (over 37 miles) from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defense forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the aircraft - 298 people - died. Most of the passengers - 196 people - were Dutch citizens.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the investigation and coordinating the international team of investigators, said in its preliminary report in September that "Flight MH17 with a Boeing 777-200 operated by Malaysia Airlines 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."

International experts from the Netherlands, Australia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began arriving at the airliner crash site near the settlement of Gabovo, 79 km (49 miles) north of Donetsk, since July 31 in search of the missing bodies of passengers and aircraft's remains. Before that, they had not been able to carry out their search operation for a week over incessant fighting between the local self-defense militia and pro-Kiev troops.

The search resumed after the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire around the airliner wreckage area and on a security corridor for the arrival of experts and their work at the crash site.