Putin: Russia will oppose international tribunal for MH17

“The veto only compounds the atrocity”, she said. The foreign ministers of all five counties were present in the UN Security Council’s meeting Wednesday.

Russian federal investigators have alleged that the airliner was shot down by the Ukrainian military.

A strident Ms Bishop told the Security Council it was “inconceivable” that, in a world with a growing number of violent terrorist groups in it, “the Security Council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial airline”.

“In their open and detailed conversation, Rutte urged the Russian president to allow latitude for trying those responsible for the MH17 disaster in a UN tribunal”, the statement said.

They insisted the veto would do nothing to silence efforts to seek global justice for the perpetrators.

Ms Bishop also signalled Australia and the other members of the joint investigation team would decide on an alternative prosecution mechanism to ensure those responsible are brought to justice. “If you are afraid of truth you are definitely on the wrong side”.

According to Reuters, 11 countries on the 15-member council voted in favor of the proposal by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine, while three countries abstained: China, Angola and Venezuela.

” What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of the investigation?” he said, adding that the guilty parties had effectively been named in advance and highlighting Russian assistance to date offered to the investigation. Churkin asked in a speech to the Council, lashing out against “aggressive… propaganda in the media”.

” We do not back the creation of a tribunal…”

“Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations”, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said, adding that the United States was among the 18 countries that lost citizens in the disaster.

Wisma Putra said it was deeply disappointed that the move was quashed denying both justice and accountability to the victims and perpetrators respectively.

Putin’s comment was the latest to indicate Russian Federation may block moves at the United Nations, co-sponsored by the Netherlands, to set up a UN-backed tribunal into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014.

Ukraine and many in the West have accused pro-Russian separatists of shooting down the plane, saying they may have used a surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia. There were 39 Australians on board flight MH17.