BRUSSELS: The EU piled fresh pressure on Russia on Thursday, extending punishing economic sanctions and demanding Moscow cooperate with a Dutch probe into the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that led to charges against four men.
The bloc’s 28 leaders also served the Kremlin with a tough warning over its move to make it easier for Ukrainians living in breakaway regions of their country’s east to obtain a Russian passport.
International investigators on Wednesday charged three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder over the 2014 catastrophe, in which 298 people were killed. The trial is due to start in the Netherlands in March next year.
At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders welcomed the criminal charges over the downing of the plane, which was hit by a missile while over part of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian rebels as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
“The European Council reiterates its full support for all efforts to establish truth, justice and accountability for the victims and their next of kin,” the leaders said in their formal summit conclusions.
“(The Council) calls on Russia to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation, and expresses its full confidence in the independence and professionalism of the legal procedures that lie ahead.”
The call comes after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Moscow must ensure those charged over the incident face justice.
The Dutch-led inquiry team said international arrest warrants had been issued for Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, all of whom are suspected of roles in the separatist self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic.
The suspects are likely to be tried in absentia since neither Russia nor Ukraine extradites their nationals. The Kremlin has denounced what it called “absolutely unfounded accusations” against the men, all of whom have military and intelligence links. – AFP
