Ukrainian prosecutor calls for continuing joint probe into MH17 crash with the Netherlands
KYIV. June 9 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin calls for continuing Ukraine's and the Netherlands' joint work to investigate the crash of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner in the Donetsk region in July 2014.
"Viktor Shokin is convinced that the joint work should be continued as part of an investigation into this tragedy to uncover all circumstances preceding the plane's destruction and following the crash. He said also that the objective truth should be established in this criminal proceeding, and those responsible must be brought to justice and punished," the Prosecutor General's Office press service said in commenting on outcomes of Shokin's meeting with Herman Bolhaar, the chairman of the Netherlands Council of Prosecutors, in Kyiv on June 8.
Bolhaar thanked his Ukrainian counterparts for professionalism and constructive cooperation and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office for providing the necessary conditions for the joint investigative team's work, it said.
The parties also agreed to coordinate their further steps.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all the 298 people on board.
Dutch Security and Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said in early May 2015 that the international search mission's work as part of an investigation into the Boeing's crash had been completed and that the bodies of two passengers remained unidentified.
The Ukrainian Security Service said in early June 2015 that Dutch experts planned to complete DNA tests of the remains of the crash victims by July 1, 2015 and release their remains to their relatives a month later.