The missile used to shoot down flight MH17 in Donbass, could not have been launched from the area mentioned by the Dutch-led investigation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Minsk on Tuesday.
While commenting on preliminary conclusions recently announced by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) looking into the crash, Lavrov pointed out that the team had rejected “all the documentary evidence that Russia presented more than once.” “The results of a field experiment carried out by the Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defense Corporation that produces Buk missiles and the primary data received by radar stations prove that the missile could not have been launched from the area mentioned by the investigation,” the Russian top diplomat stressed.
Moreover, in Lavrov’s view, all the accusations in the case that are being made against Russia even though the investigation is not over, are incorrect and aimed at playing on the hate of Russia.
“It is at least incorrect to make such statements at the current stage,” the Russian foreign minister said. “But they are tempted to play on the hate against Russia and draw the world’s attention to them, distracting their own people and the global community from the issues they are facing,” he said.