Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday said Ukraine has to take full responsibility for the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 because it happened in Ukrainian airspace.

“The crash happened in the airspace of Ukraine which bears full responsibility for what happened,” Shoigu told Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

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Shoigu also added that if the Ukraine government “solved its domestic problems without the use of armed forces” against the separatists the MH17 tragedy would not have occurred.

Shoigu made his remarks during a meeting with Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in Moscow.

Defence Minister Hussein went to Moscow to discuss the ongoing investigation of the MH17 tragedy that happened last July 17 which killed 298 people.

Before the arrival of Hussein, Dutch investigators released a preliminary investigative report on the MH17 disaster on Tuesday, reports said.

According to the Dutch experts’ initial findings, the aircraft broke up in the air after being struck by materials that "pierced the plane at high velocity" last July.

The initial findings of the said probe point towards an external cause of the MH17 crash, Tjibbe Joustra, the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, stated.

They found no evidence that point to a technical malfunction or indication of human error and their probe in the crash matched the claims that the plane was shot down by a missile, the investigators added.

The Safety Board believes they will need more research to identify more precisely the cause of crash. They said “additional evidence will become available for investigation" in the near future.

Western governments accused Russia of supplying surface-to-air missile battery to pro-Russian separatists that downed the MH17. But Russia consistently denied the claim and blamed Kiev instead for the crash.

TagsRussia, Ukraine, MH17 crash, Malaysia, Moscow