JIT Refuses To Comment On Former SBU Officer's Claim About Kiev's Role In MH17 Crash

The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the 2014 MH17 Boeing crash over Donbas has taken note of the claims about Kiev's complicity in the tragedy made by a former employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), but will not comment on them, Wim de Bruin, the spokesman for the JIT and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, told Sputnik on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2019) The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the 2014 MH17 Boeing crash over Donbas has taken note of the claims about Kiev's complicity in the tragedy made by a former employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), but will not comment on them, Wim de Bruin, the spokesman for the JIT and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, told Sputnik on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Vasil Prozorov, a former SBU employee, said that he believed that Kiev had been involved in the crash, adding that his statements were "backed by the data." According to Prozorov, two people were somehow complicit in the crash or the cover-up: the deputy head of President Petro Poroshenko's administration who headed a counterintelligence department in the past, Valery Kondratyuk, and the current head of the chief intelligence directorate of the Defense Ministry, Vasyl Burba.

"We have taken notice of it. And we will give no further comment," the spokesman said.

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Donbas. All 298 people on board, mostly Dutch nationals, died.

Kiev accused local militias of downing the aircraft, while they said that 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 had been decommissioned in 2011.

According to Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Vinnichenko, Russia sent to the JIT the data showing that the missile that hit the Boeing was a Ukrainian one, but this information was not taken into account.

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 Russia was not allowed to participate in the investigation into the crash, and the country could recognize the results of the probe only in case of Moscow's full participation in it.