Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution on Tribunal for Malaysia Airlines Crash in Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS — Infuriating nations that lost citizens in the destruction of a Malaysian jetliner last year over eastern Ukraine, Russia blocked a Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have created a tribunal to prosecute and punish those found responsible.

The Russians suggested the measure was a biased and politically motivated propaganda move to implicate the Kremlin or the Kremlin-backed Ukrainian separatists in control of eastern Ukraine.

Although the Russian veto was not unexpected, it resurrected the tensions and bitter feelings precipitated by the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner, which appeared to have been hit by a sophisticated missile and plunged in pieces on July 17, 2014, onto a wheat field near the Russian border, killing all 298 people aboard.

The disaster elevated the simmering pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine into an international crisis.

While the passenger manifest listed people from more than a dozen nations, many aboard the plane, Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were Dutch, and the Netherlands has been taking the lead in investigating the disaster. Four other countries are collaborating with the inquiry — Malaysia, Ukraine, Australia and Belgium.

“We are deeply disappointed,” said the Malaysia transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, who attended the Council session and spoke in support of the resolution before the vote.

“Families of the victims will have to wait even longer,” he told reporters later outside the Council chambers. But echoing remarks by ministers from the other nations investigating the cause, he said, “The perpetrators, wherever they come from, must be held to account.”

Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, told reporters it “does not come as a complete surprise” that Russia had blocked the resolution. Nonetheless, he said, “I find it incomprehensible that a member of the Security Council obstructs justice.”

Mr. Koenders said that the veto should not be interpreted as a defeat, and that other legal remedies were under consideration. “We will very quickly agree on the next step,” he said. “I assure you we haven’t lost time.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop of Australia, who also attended the Council vote, called the veto “a mockery of Russia’s commitment to accountability.”

The United States, which was among the first to accuse the pro-Russia separatists of complicity because of surveillance data that indicated a missile strike launched from their territory, added its voice to the criticism.

“By vetoing this resolution, Russia has tried to deny justice to the 298 victims on that plane, and deny their families a chance to hold accountable those responsible,” said Samantha Power, the United States ambassador.

Malaysia introduced the Security Council resolution, which was aimed at enforcing accountability for the downing of Flight 17 as called for in a resolution unanimously adopted by the council four days after the disaster.

The vote in the 15-member Council was 11 to 1. Three countries — China, Angola and Venezuela — abstained.

Russia, one of the five permanent members of the Council, along with Britain, China, France and the United States, has veto power over any resolution.

Explaining the veto, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, said his country wanted a “rapid determination of guilt” for whoever was found responsible. But he also questioned the impartiality of the tribunal envisioned in the resolution. “Can it resist propaganda?” he said.

Mr. Churkin also accused the resolution’s sponsors of proceeding with the vote even while knowing Russia would object.

  

“This, in our view, indicates the fact that political purposes were more important for them than practical objectives,” he said.

Ukraine’s government accused Kremlin-backed separatists of using a Russian-made missile to shoot down the plane. Russia has suggested that Ukrainian forces may have been responsible — with either a missile or a warplane. It has also questioned why Ukrainian aviation authorities permitted Flight 17 to traverse airspace where they knew armed conflict could put aircraft at risk.

Russia strongly signaled its intent to veto the resolution a few weeks ago, when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia forcefully rejected the idea of a tribunal in a telephone call to Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands. Mr. Putin called it an “untimely and counterproductive initiative.”

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