US government urged Russia to ensure that the people who have been accused of being involved in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014 should get justice.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said in a statement that “Moscow must ensure that those who charged with murder over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 face justice”.
Early on Wednesday international investigators announced charges against several suspects in the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
The Boeing 777 crashed in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 killing all 298 people on board.
Flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down.
Pompeo added that the US fully supports the work of Dutch authorities on the Joint Investigation Team, comprising nearly 100 experts from the five affected countries – the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.
The Dutch-led inquiry team on Wednesday said international arrest warrants had been issued for Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko, all of whom are suspected of roles in the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic.
Pompeo reiterated his “deepest sympathies” to the families and friends of the victims and called for justice on behalf of the 298 “innocent civilians who lost their lives on that day”.
However, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, Ukraine was hiding vital data on the Malaysia Airlines flight crash and manipulating the investigation of the 2014 catastrophe.