The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it is groundless to accuse Russian soldiers of being responsible for the deadly crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.
The "absolutely unfounded" allegation caused nothing but regret, and it was aimed at discrediting Russia in the eyes of the international community, the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the international Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced at a press conference in the Netherlands that three Russians and one Ukrainian will be prosecuted for allegedly delivering a Buk missile system to eastern Ukraine.
The MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The JIT believes that a Russian-made Buk missile shot down the airliner, killing all 298 people on board.
No concrete evidence was demonstrated to back up such unlawful statements, while the data provided by Russia to the JIT were stubbornly ignored, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"We continue to have fair questions about the quality of the JIT. All this confirms our earlier concerns about the bias and one-sidedness of the ongoing process," it said.
Nevertheless, it said Russia remains ready to assist in the investigation to establish the truth about the MH17 tragedy and bring the real culprits to justice.
