KYIV. Feb 2 (Interfax) - Dutch prosecutors cannot study primary radar data received from the Russian side with regard to the July 2014 crash of the Malaysian Boeing in Donbas due to its format inconsistent with international standards, but the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that investigators will be able to properly assess the data.
"The information submitted by the Russian Federation, which, according to Russian mass media and so-called experts, the Dutch investigators were unable to decode, was actually presented in a format that is inconsistent with ICAO standards. And that is exactly why it cannot be used by the investigators right now. That's why the Dutch side has to apply to Russia with an additional inquiry," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry official Mariana Betsa said when asked by Interfax.
In any case, the Netherlands National Prosecutor's office will assess the new files it has received from Russia in terms of their suitability for any use in the criminal probe, Betsa said.
"The investigation continues regarding specific suspects, the subordination chain and the command chain in order to promptly submit the case to the court instance for consideration. Ukraine is strongly committed to finding out the truth and prosecuting those guilty of the MH17 crash," she said.
However, Betsa noted that the Dutch investigators stated clearly, back when presenting preliminary results of the probe into the MH17 crash, that they had received enough information about radar data concerning the criminal case.
"It was pointed out: the evidence that the investigators then had was 'more than enough to come to conclusions in the criminal probe' and that no additional evidentiary material is needed. Russia seems to be unwilling to see the things that are obvious to everyone: the investigators advanced further a long time ago," Betsa said.
A few media organizations reported earlier that investigators of the Netherlands National Prosecutor's office had to request that Moscow once again present the radar data since it was impossible to decode the data earlier received from Russia due to its wrong format.
Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) deputy head Oleg Storchevoi said earlier that there are no common international requirements on the format of data from radar stations while investigating air crashes.
"As you know, the media have recently published reports by the Dutch committee dealing with the inquiry into the Malaysian Boeing 777 crash that the data which the Russian side has presented to the committee from the radar stations' data, cannot be decoded by them and the format does not comply with international requirements. I want to say that there are no international requirements on the list of such data and its recording format," he said.
"The Russian side handed over this data last year, and the issue of decoding is a merely technical question, which could be immediately resolved in the event of joint work," Storchevoi said.
"It is also surprising that the fact that they cannot decode our data was reported in the media, but Russia was not informed about it. The fact that it took more than three months for the Dutch side to identify this problem is also bewildering. As we have already repeatedly said and informed the public community, the dragging on of such a framework is the wish of the Dutch committee to intentionally mislead the public," he said.
Russia is ready to help the Dutch side decode the data from the radar stations in the framework of the inquiry into the air crash.
"Both during the work of the technical committee and during the work of the investigative committee we have said that we are open to cooperation. We are ready to assign our specialists and the required data so that the entire public community will learn the truth about the tragedy. But we have not received any requests for aid so far," Storchevoi said.
"The [International Civil Aviation Organization] ICAO international organization recommends involving the equipment designers in order to decode the data and obtain unbiased data in the case of inquiry," he said.
"Up to this point, the Dutch side has not made any requests to involve our specialists and provide aid," Storchevoi said.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed over the Donetsk region on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board.
The fatalities include 192 Dutch nationals (one of whom also had U.S. citizenship), 44 citizens of Malaysia (including 15 crewmembers), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 from the United Kingdom (one of whom also had South African citizenship), four from Germany, four from Belgium, three from the Philippines, one from Canada, and one from New Zealand.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising prosecutors and representatives of other law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Malaysia, and also representatives of Eurojust, was created on August 7, 2014.
The first results of the criminal investigation into the MH17 crash were presented in the Netherlands on September 28, 2016.
"The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is convinced of having obtained irrefutable evidence to establish that on 17 July 2014, flight MH-17 was shot down by a BUK missile from the 9M38-series. According to the JIT there is also evidence identifying the launch location that includes an agricultural field near Pervomaiskyi which, at the time, was controlled by pro-Russian fighters," the document said.
The investigators further suggest that the BUK-TELAR self-propelled air defense system was brought to Ukraine from Russia and was returned to Russian territory after it was used in the attack on the flight MH17, according to the document.
Meanwhile, the Russian side categorically disagreed with the findings published by the JIT, doubting the objectivity of the conclusions it made.