Malaysia Refraining From 'Pointing Fingers' Until MH17 Investigation Over

Malaysia’s position on the investigation of the crash of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine last year entails "not pointing fingers" at anyone until the final results of the probe have been released, Russian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur Valery Yermolov said Thursday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) published the findings of its probe into the July 2014 crash of a plane belonging to Malaysia Airlines, which found that it crashed as a result of the explosion of a Russia-made surface-to-air Buk missile near the left part of the plane. The Board did not specify who was responsible for launching the missile.

"The [Malaysian] position, to outline it briefly and concisely, was that and is that they do not intend to point fingers at anyone <…> until all investigations are over, until corresponding commissions have made their conclusions and their reports have been presented," Yermolov told RIA Novosti.

An international task force responsible for investigating the crash of flight MH17 invited Malaysia to participate in the probe with the aim of promoting the establishment of an international tribunal to bring to justice those responsible for the tragedy at the UN Security Council, Russia’s ambassador to Malaysia said.

"As Malaysia is the only member of the task force that holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, it was used as a 'pusher.' Malaysia put forward an initiative in the Security Council on the resolution that was vetoed by us," Yermolov said.

The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Ukraine, and Malaysia form the task force conducting a criminal investigation into the crash. In July, they proposed setting up an independent tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the incident.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board.

Russia vetoed the UN Security Council draft resolution to establish the tribunal, as the plane crash was the result of a crime but not a threat to international peace and security, as written in the resolution, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Immediately after the plane crash, Washington and its Western allies accused militia forces in eastern Ukraine of using a Russia-made missile to shoot it down. Militia fighters denied the claim, saying that they did not possess weapons capable of bringing down an aircraft flying at 32,000 feet.

According to the Dutch Safety Board report, the Malaysian aircraft crashed as a result of a 9N314M-model warhead carried on a 9M38-series surface-to-air Buk missile. It was fired from anywhere within a 320 square kilometer (123 square mile) area of eastern Ukraine, the report said, without specifying who was responsible for the launch. The board ruled out the use of air-to-air missiles, an earlier rival theory.

Earlier on the same day, Russian air defense systems producer Almaz-Antey presented the findings of its own investigation into the tragedy, stating that the missile that downed the passenger plane could only have been a model of the 9M38-series of missiles, a series withdrawn from Russian army service in 2011. The missile manufacturer concluded that the missile was launched from the region of Zaroshchenske, under the control of Kiev-led forces at the time of the crash.

Oleg Storchevoy, the deputy head of Russia's air transport agency Rosaviatsia, said that the Dutch version was not final.