UN Security Council Demands Investigation Into Downed Malaysia Airlines Flight

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding an international investigation into the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight in Ukraine that killed all of its nearly 300 passengers.

The 15-member UN body, whose five permanent members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, also demanded that armed groups controlling the crash site of flight MH17 “refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site, including by refraining from destroying, moving or disturbing wreckage, equipment, debris, personal belongings, or remains, and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unrestricted access to the site…”

All military activities in the crash area must stop immediately, the body’s resolution added, to allow for safe access by investigators.

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Russia added its support to the resolution, according to media reports, after language was switched from referring to the plane’s “shooting down” to “downing.”

U.S. officials including Secretary of State John Kerry as well as Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, have blamed Russia for the tragedy, saying the country provided the anti-aircraft weaponry to pro-separatist rebels who used it to take down the plane, though those claims have not been substantiated. Russian officials, for their part, have cast the blame on Ukraine for taking down the plane.

A train carrying the remains of bodies of most of the victims arrived arrived in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Monday, and the remains will now head to Amsterdam.

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