UN Welcomes Preliminary Results of JIT Investigation of MH17 Crash

The United Nations welcomed issuing preliminary results of the Joint Investigation Team’s probe into the MH17 plane crash destroyed by a surface-to-air missile in eastern Ukraine in 2014, UN Secretary-General’s Office Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced that the MH17 airliner allegedly was downed in 2014 in eastern Ukraine by a Buk missile system which was brought from Russia and consequently returned there. Furthermore the investigation believes that the missile was launched by the territory controlled by the Donbas militias.

"We welcome the presentation of the Joint Investigation Team’s preliminary results of the criminal investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airways flight [MH]17," Dujarric said.

He said that the UN Secretary General highly assessed the thorough, impartial and independent investigation of the crash.

"We believe that the final conclusions of the criminal investigation together with those of the technical investigation led by the Dutch Safety Board that identified the cause of the crash would be crucial in bringing the perpetrators to justice," Dujarric added.

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.