Like NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini called, on Friday 25 May, for the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility for the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014. The crash left 298 people dead (see EUROPE 11125).
Saying that the "independent, professional and impartial" investigation report of the Joint Investigation Team, published on 24 May, concluded that the installation used to bring down flight MH17 belonged "beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation", Mogherini urged Moscow, on behalf of the EU, "to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability".
In her statement, Mogherini reiterated the EU's "full support" for the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2166, which demands that those responsible for the downing of flight MH17 be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability.
In a separate press release, Stoltenberg also called on Russia to accept its responsibility.
According to the interim report of the Joint Investigation Team (Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine), the missile used to shoot down flight MH17 came from Russia's 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the Russian city of Kursk. (Original version in French by Camille Cerise Gessant)