Ukraine PM accuses Russian forces of shooting down flight MH17

That information was presented to the Dutch investigators, but was not taken into account, he claimed.

Russian Federation blames Ukrainian forces for downing the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 on July 17, 2014.

Ukraine and Western countries contend the airliner was downed by a missile fired by Russia-backed rebels or Russian forces, from rebel-controlled territory.

Officials from the Buk manufacturers held their own news conference in Moscow earlier on Tuesday. The experimental aircraft’s remains showed a much different damage pattern than the remnants of MH17, the company said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry, however, called the Dutch report biased.

The Dutch investigators said the missile exploded less than a meter (yard) from the MH17 cockpit, killing three crew in the cockpit and breaking off the front of the plane. Mr. Joustra said there were sufficient indications commercial flights were at risk after several military planes had been shot down prior to the Malaysia Airlines flight being struck.

“There was the deafening noise of the impact, abrupt deceleration and acceleration, decompression and the corresponding mist formation, reduced oxygen level, extreme cold, powerful airflow, the airplane’s rapid descent and objects flying around”, the report stated. All 298 people on the plane died.

“There were no responses to the many questions that Russian Federation sent to this investigative group”, he said. He said a key priority “is now tracking down and prosecuting the perpetrators”.

The safety board chairman was highly critical of the decision to allow the plane to fly through the airspace in eastern Ukraine while an armed conflict was occurring.

In a report Tuesday, the investigators said “the risks posed to civil aviation were not adequately identified. Our investigation showed that all parties regarded the conflict in eastern part of Ukraine from a military perspective”.

The Netherlands has headed the investigation into the disaster because 196 victims on the flight were Dutch, and Ukraine agreed to let the Netherlands take the lead role. A separate investigation by the Dutch prosecutor’s office is charged with identifying suspects in the launching of the missile and building a case against them.

Relatives of the crash victims were being informed of the findings ahead of the report’s release, the Dutch Safety Board said in a statement.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk meanwhile blamed Russia’s security service.

Robby Oehlers, whose cousin Daisy was among those killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down said the conclusion from the Dutch investigation was shared with family members at a meeting in The Hague.

Shrapnel fragments all pointed to a ground-launched Buk missile, it said.

Further forensic analysis would be required to determine the exact launch location within a 320-square-kilometer (124-square-mile) area, Mr. Joustra, said, adding that such efforts lay outside the scope of the crash probe.

The missile was sacked from a 320 square kilometer (123.5 square mile) area in the eastern part of Ukraine, said Joustra as he stood before a reconstruction of the plane built from debris collected from the crash zone.

However, the Russian state-controlled Almaz-Antey arms-maker contended on Tuesday a draft of the Dutch report found the plane was shot down by a Buk missile warhead.

The investigation, however, did not conclude where the missile was sacked from.

Investigators found the passengers and crew would have lost consciousness nearly immediately after the missile exploded, relatives said.