Russia wants PACE to discuss MH17 crash over Ukraine

Russia wants the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash over the embattled eastern Ukraine discussed at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told reporters on Tuesday.
Naryshkin, who took part in a session of PACE’s Presidential Committee earlier in the day, said it had agreed that the investigation should be open and transparent.
A Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people crashed in east Ukraine on July 17 on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Both sides in Ukraine’s conflict accused each other of shooting down the plane with a missile.
A preliminary report on the cause of the crash is almost ready, Dutch Safety Board spokesperson Sara Vernooij told Tass on Tuesday. This will happen either at the end of the week or early next week, she said.
Sara Vernooij said the preliminary report will shed certain light on the cause of the tragedy, but many questions will remain unanswered. Results of a more thorough investigation could be published next spring, she said.
Kiev’s military operation designed to regain control over the eastern Ukrainian breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums, was launched in mid-April and has involved armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation.