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MOSCOW/NIEUWEGEIN. — The Russian Foreign Ministry stated yesterday that the first results of the investigation into the MH17 crash presented by the Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team (comprising Dutch, Australian, Belgian, Ukrainian and Malaysian prosecutors), confirmed that the investigation was biased.Russia is disappointed regarding the situation with the investigation of the crash of the MH17 airliner in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Earlier yesterday, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced that the plane allegedly was downed by a BUK missile system, which was brought from Russia and consequently returned there.

Furthermore, the investigation believes that the missile was launched by the territory controlled by the Donbas (pro-Russian) militias.

“Russia is disappointed that the situation regarding the Boeing (777) crash is not changing. The conclusion of the Dutch prosecutors confirms that the case is biased and politically motivated,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a state- ment.

According to the spokeswoman, Ukraine was made a member of the JIT despite the fact that it is an interested party.

“It sounds like a cruel joke, but Ukraine was made a full-fledged member of the JIT, giving it an opportunity to falsify evidence and have the case develop to its advantage . . . Everything that the so-called ‘evidence base’ of the Dutch prosecution is based on what was provided by the Ukrainian agencies, which are indubitably an interested side,” Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman expressed hope that the situation would change after Russia provided “such indisputable evidence as primary radar data”.

“Until now, the investigation keeps ignoring conclusive proof from Russia, in spite of the fact that Russia actually was the only side that channels trustworthy information and discloses new data,” she said.

“And the final conclusions of the investigation, unlike the preliminary ones, will turn into an objective truth and will finally point to the real culprits in this tragedy,” she concluded.

The Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team is investigating the MH17 plane crash in eastern Ukraine in 2014, presented a preliminary report yesterday, – Wires.