MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Kiev of trying to influence air traffic controllers and tamper with Boeing crash data in the wake of last week's disaster in eastern Ukraine, the ministry’s spokesman said Wednesday.
“According to reports that emerge, Ukrainian authorities are conducting certain covert activities involving data storage equipment and employees of Ukrainian air traffic control services, both civilian and military, without notifying international organizations,” spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
He said the Ukrainian government sought to spin every fact to make Russia a target for criticism, instead of helping international experts to advance the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines plane, “while also making the results of such activities open to the public.”
“Obviously, this contradicts with the goal of an objective and unbiased investigation,” the spokesman said, adding this wasn’t the first time that Ukrainians violated investigation procedures.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, killing all the 298 people on board.
Lukashevich also reminded that Kiev was still to present its findings on the deadly arson fire in the resort city of Odessa in southeastern Ukraine, which killed at least 48 and injured over 200 people.
According to video footage from the scene, pro-Kiev radicals joined by the Right Sector militia blocked a large group of anti-government protesters in the House of Trade Unions and set the building on fire by hurling Molotov cocktails inside.
No plausible explanation has been offered for the fact that many of those who died did not try to take refuge on upper floors or the roof, prompting rumors that they were poisoned by an unknown chemical.
