Moscow:
Russian investigators confirmed claims by a witness that a Ukrainian pilot fired a missile on the day of the Malaysia Airlines crash which killed 298 people.
The investigators used a polygraph test which showed no evidence of the witness lying, Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the committee, said late on Wednesday.
This followed a report in a Russian newspaper where the witness had voiced his allegations.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said the witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, saw the deployment of a Ukrainian warplane armed with air-to-air missiles on the day the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down.
“The facts were reported clearly and with no inconsistencies. The investigators lean towards considering them truthful. A polygraph examination confirmed them too,” Markin said.
“According to his account, he personally saw the plane piloted by [Ukrainian military pilot] Voloshin armed with R-60 air-to-air missiles,” Markin said. “He added there was no need for such weapons during regular air missions of the Ukrainian Air Forces because the rebel forces had no military aircraft.”
Markin said that the Investigative Committee will continue to analyse evidence and share information with the Netherlands-led international probe into the incident, “if they are really interested in establishing the truth and send an inquiry.”
The witness is likely to be taken into protective custody in Russia because his life may be threatened, Markin said.
The Ukrainian Security Service confirmed on Wednesday that a Captain Voloshin does serve as a military pilot in the country’s armed services. But it said he didn’t fly any missions on the day the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down.
The Russian Investigative Committee invited the Dutch or Malaysian experts to check Voloshin using a polygraph, and Ukraine’s Security Service to provide the military log to the official investigation, Markin said.
“The fact that Ukraine’s Security Service has acknowledged Voloshin’s existence is already an accomplishment,” he said.
Markin suggested the air traffic controllers operating in the area on the day of the catastrophe should also be questioned, adding that they should be “found” first.
“It is clear that all this is very difficult, and probably impossible. It is much easier to call the information and evidence provided by Russia’s Investigative Committee ‘fake’,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry made public radar data indicating that a Ukrainian military jet capable of taking down the airliner with an air-to-air missile was in the vicinity of MH17 at the time of the incident.
Talks aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine continued Thursday, albeit via videolink, leaders of the pro-Russian separatists said.
Negotiations are “very difficult” and are currently conducted via Skype, Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of the neighbouring Luhansk People’s Republic, also said that the talks are ongoing.
The first meeting of the so-called Ukraine Contact Group since the government in Kiev and pro-Russian rebels in the east signed a ceasefire in September was held Wednesday in Minsk.
However, negotiators left the capital of Belarus after more than five hours of talks late on Wednesday and it was not clear if they would return for another round on Friday.
Zakharchenko merely said Thursday that the talks would last another two days.
Russia said that it hopes that the talks will go on.
“The main thing is that the dialogue continues and there is basis to assume that it will resume very soon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich was quoted as saying by local news agencies.
The trilateral Contact Group - consisting of delegates from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) - is seeking to stabilize the fragile September truce amid continued eruptions of fighting.
The latest talks were initiated after a conference call among the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany earlier this week.
Mediators want the two sides to restart peace talks and fully implement the earlier accord they signed. Along with the ceasefire, it required prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of heavy military equipment.
A key stumbling block at Wednesday’s meeting was the demand by separatists that Kiev end its economic blockade of rebel-held territories. Other issues include the region’s political status and amnesty for combatants.
