Anti-Russia Sanctions Have Never Been Related To MH17 Crash - Dutch Prime Minister

The sanctions against Russia have never been related to the Flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine as it is a different issue, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) The sanctions against Russia have never been related to the Flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine as it is a different issue, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday.

"The sanctions have never been related to MH 17 because this is a separate issue," Rutte said at Atlantic Council in Washington.

Rutte said the sanctions against Russia happened within that time frame but are related to the situations in the east of Ukraine and Crimea.

He also said that Washington could align between the sanctions systems between Europe and the United States in order for them to have "more impact."

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's easternmost region of Donbas. All 298 people on board, mostly Dutch and Malaysian nationals, died. Kiev accused local militias of downing the aircraft, while the militias, in turn, said that they had no weapons capable of downing such a plane.

The interim conclusions presented by the JIT, which does not include Russia, suggested that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk missile originating with a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that all Russian missiles of this type were decommissioned in 2011. According to Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Vinnichenko, Russia sent to the JIT data showing that the missile that hit the Boeing was a Ukrainian one, but this information was not taken into account.

Nevertheless, in June of this year, the JIT said that it had decided to bring charges against four suspects allegedly linked to the crash three Russians and a Ukrainian.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the JIT allegations of Russia's links to the crash are groundless and regrettable, adding that the investigation is biased and one-sided. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Moscow was not allowed to participate in the investigation and would only recognize the results of the probe if given full access to it.