The U.S. believes that unlawful armed groups in eastern Ukraine could not have shot down the Malaysian Boeing 777 without the assistance of military experts, probably Russian ones, U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council Samantha Power said.
Power said this during a meeting of the UN Security Council on July18.
In addition, the U.S. does not believe Ukrainian military were involved in the incident, she said.
The Ukrainian military had Buk missile systems (SA-11 under U.S. and NATO classification) in their warehouses, but there were no such weapons near the area where the plane was downed, the ambassador said.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the Ukrainian air defense systems haven’t fired a single missile, despite the fact that their airspace was violated, Power said.
She also said that the investigation teams should be provided immediate and full access to the crash site and called for the immediate ceasefire, which should facilitate such access.
According to the U.S. ambassador, any evidence that will fall into the hands of Russian-backed separatists operating in eastern Ukraine should be immediately handed over to independent experts.
Russia should contribute to this, Power said.
