Russia asks US, Ukraine to disclose data of MH17 crash

Moscow: Moscow has once again urged the US to disclose the satellite images taken over eastern Ukraine when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed. Moscow continued to insist that Washington should “share its satellite data because there’s no way they could not have seen what happened there on that day”, Russian envoy to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Andrey V. Kelin, told Russia’s TV channel Rossiya 24 on Monday. Russia also urgently needs Kiev to disclose the communication records between Ukrainian air traffic controllers, Kelin said. [caption id=“attachment_1808285” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  A crane carries wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines MH17. Reuters[/caption] “I was glad to learn today that collection of the wreckage resumed and all will be taken away,” Xinhua quoted Kelin as telling the channel. “I hope and see that, after overcoming political difficulties, the investigation is getting along well.” Dutch investigators have begun evacuating debris of the crashed Boeing 777 from the crash site in eastern Ukraine. The Dutch Safety Board, leading the investigation into the crash, announced on Monday that the recovery of the wreckage started on Sunday and would be completed in about five more days. The tail section of the aircraft and more human remains have been recovered and the wreckage and the remains would be transported by train to Kharkiv for further examination and finally to the Netherlands, said the Dutch Safety Board investigators, who were supervising the retrieval work that was monitored by the OSCE. The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border 17 July, killing all 298 people on board. Both Kiev and the West have since claimed that Russian missiles were responsible for bringing the aircraft to ground, but no evidence has been provided up till now to prove that allegation. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a tense 15-minute conversation with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Beijing earlier this month, with the main focus on the catastrophe of the Malaysian airliner. Abbott’s office said in a statement released Wednesday that Abbott and Putin have agreed that the aforementioned information should be provided to the independent investigation, and have “robustly spoken out in favour of speeding up the investigation of the reasons for the tragedy”. IANS