Rebel leader: ‘We didn’t shoot down MH17’

196 of the victims on the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight were Dutch – released an exhaustive report on the downing of the Boeing 777, concluding that it was a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile that brought the plane down. He said the plane was hit by pieces from a missile explosion.

This illustration shows where the warhead detonated above Flight MH17 [Photo Courtesy of Dutch Safety Board]The Malaysia Airlines plane went down after a warhead detonated outside of the front left of the aircraft. “As a result of the detonation the forward part of the airplane was torn off. The airplane broke up in the air, the wreckage came down in an area of about 50 kilometres at the eastern part of Ukraine”, Joustra added.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, along with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, welcomed the release of the Dutch Safety Board’s final aircraft accident investigation report, saying that it was “consistent with the Australian Government’s initial assessment of the incident”.

On the other side, Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the US remained convinced that the Russian-backed rebels were responsible.

Western officials and experts blamed separatist forces, who they said were being aided by the Russian military.

The airspace should have been closed The tragedy wouldn’t have happened if the airspace of eastern Ukraine had been closed to passenger planes, the Dutch Safety Board said.

“The BUK missile is developed and made in Russian Federation”, a source told Volkskrant.

Air traffic restrictions had been in place over eastern Ukraine since July 1, 2014, due to the hostilities in the conflict between pro-independence militants and Ukrainian government troops, he said.

“There was sufficient reason for the Ukrainian authorities to close the air space above the eastern part of their country”, Joustra said.

The report also didn’t absolve Malaysia Airlines and IATA from responsibility for flying over the Ukraine, and urged organisations to pay closer attention to conflict zones.

The spokeswoman said it is indisputable that Ukraine was directly responsible for not closing its airspace to civil aviation flights. The Russians also say that their tests found a different damage pattern than the one described in the Dutch report, casting doubt on a few conclusions the Dutch report reached.

Klimkin said Ukraine, Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Belgium – countries who had citizens on board the plane – were considering other options for prosecution.