MH17: Ukraine to work closely with Malaysia under UNSC membership next year

Newly-elected United Nations Security Council (UNSC) non-permanent member, Ukraine, will work closely with Malaysia on the MH17 tragedy during its term, says Ukrainian Ambassador to Malaysia Ihor Humennyi.

He said that the membership effective January 1 next year would be a good platform for both countries to work on finding the perpetrators and closure for families.

"Malaysia is also a non-permanent member until end of 2016. Thus during this term we will utilise this great opportunity to work together in bringing those responsible for the tragedy to court," he said.

He said this to Bernama in an interview relating to the Dutch Safety Board's (DSB) Report on MH17 released Tuesday following an investigation conducted by the DSB team comprising the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the US, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine and Australia.

The team concluded that the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a surface-to-air BUK missile while cruising at 33,000 ft over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard on July 17 last year.

Ukraine was elected to the UNSC following an uncontested vote held at the UN headquarters for the term 2016-2017 alongside Japan, Egypt, Senegal and Uruguay.

International media reported Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin as saying on Thursday that the country, as a non-permanent member would among others work on bringing the MH17 "perpetrators to justice".

Klimkin had said that the UNSC would provide an "unbiased and transparent legal vehicle" for this purpose, added the report.