Russia on Wednesday flatly dismissed a report from international prosecutors which concluded that Malaysian airliner MH17 had been downed by a Russian-made missile launched from a Ukrainian village held by pro-Russian rebels in 2014.
In a strongly-worded statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Dutch-led investigation’s findings were biased and politically-motivated.
“To arbitrarily designate a guilty party and dream up the desired results has become the norm for our Western colleagues,” said Zakharova.
“The investigation to this day continues to ignore incontestable evidence from the Russian side despite the fact that Russia is practically the only one sending reliable information to them.”
Russia has long denied any involvement in the episode.
Zakharova complained that the Russian government had been prevented from playing a full role in investigators’ work and alleged that the Ukrainian government had been able to influence the inquiry using fabricated evidence.
Zakharova said she hoped new radar data presented by the Russian military would prompt the prosecutors to revise their findings.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn, Jack Stubbs and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Lidia Kelly)