Ukraine fully responsible for Boeing-777 crash, Russian Defense Minister says

Ukraine is solely responsible for the catastrophe of the Malaysian Boeing. If Kiev could solve internal problems without the use of the army, the tragedy would not have happened, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday at a meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Hishamuddin Hussein, who came to Moscow for the meeting to coordinate the investigation of the tragedy, ITAR-TASS reports.

"The tragedy occurred in the airspace of Ukraine, which bears full, absolute responsibility for what happened," said Shoigu. According to him, if Ukraine could be capable of solving internal problems without the use of the armed forces, the tragedy with the passenger airplane would not have happened.

"We formulated ten simple questions to the Ukrainian side, the answers to which could shed light on circumstances of the tragedy," said Shoigu. "Unfortunately, we have not received a response to any of the questions," he said.

Boeing-777 of Malaysia Airlines, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 in the Donetsk region. The Kiev authorities blamed the militia for the tragedy, but the latter said they did not have the weapons, with which they could down the aircraft at such altitudes.

On Tuesday, the Netherlands published a preliminary report about the investigation of the Boeing crash. Experts confirmed that the plane fell apart in flight due to "structural damage caused by external influences of numerous high-energy objects." The source of those objects has to been established yet.

Final conclusions about the causes of the disaster are to be published within one year after the disaster, but the date can be changed "depending on the progress of the investigation."