FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at a Security Council Briefing on Ukraine
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
September 19, 2014
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Under-Secretary-General Feltman, for your informative briefing. Thank you, Ministers Timmermans, Bishop, and Asselborn for being here and signaling the importance of this issue with your presence.
First, on behalf of the United States, let me once again convey our condolences to the loved ones of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. We do not presume to grasp the depth of your grief. But we mourn the lives of those you lost.
We convene today for an update on the investigation into a crime that abruptly ended too many lives. The purpose of the investigation is to determine the truth about what brought down that plane.
Now, for any investigation to be credible, we all agree that it must be thorough, impartial, and professional. Ukraine and the whole international community turned to the Dutch Safety Board because we believed it was more than capable of meeting these standards.
The Board’s preliminary findings reflect its independence and its expertise. Those findings, submitted to the Security Council on September 9th, include the following:
- First, the aircraft was brought down by, “a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.”
- Second, there were no engine warnings, aircraft system warnings, or distress messages detected.
- Third, the damage to the aircraft is, “not consistent with any known failure mode of the aircraft, its engines, or systems.”
- And fourth, the only planes identified in the report that were in the vicinity of Flight MH 17 were commercial aircraft.
Based on those preliminary findings, one can rule out that Flight MH 17 was brought down by a bomb on board. It was not. Russian claims that the flight was brought down by a Ukrainian fighter jet are also not supported by evidence in the report. Moreover, ground photography is consistent with the expected damage from a surface-to-air missile, but does not correspond with the damage that short-range, air-to-air missile from a smaller warhead would produce. These facts are important because they contradict the fiction that has been propagated by Russia.
The Dutch Safety Board’s findings are consistent, however, with evidence gathered by a group of countries, including the United States, pointing to the fact that Flight MH 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Russia called for today’s meetings under the pretense of being briefed on the status of the investigation. The representative of the Russian Federation today has appealed for what he calls a “objective and transparent investigation.”
But in its intervention today, Russia made clear its real intention is not to learn about the investigation, but to discredit it. Russia is seeking to play the role of forensic aviation investigator but cannot do so in an impartial and objective manner.
Russian-backed separatists denied access to the crash site for days after Flight 17 was downed. Russian-backed separatists then restricted access after initially letting outside officials in.
This is not consistent with an objective and transparent investigation.
The representative of the Russian Federation today complained about the timeliness of the voice recordings being processed. Yet telephone conversations intercepted by the Ukrainian government indicate that the commander of a pro-Russian separatist unit told local state emergency service employees that Moscow wanted to find the black boxes; and he enlisted the support of these local officials to help recover the boxes.
This is not consistent with the desire to ensure the sanctity of the recordings that, today, the Russian representative professes a desire to protect.
The Russian representative says that the report does not contain “convincing information.” In order to be convinced of facts, one must acknowledge them. In order to be convinced of truth, one must allow it to be surfaced. One can be convinced if one confronts the facts as they are established and proven, not as one may wish they were.
It’s time to allow facts, however inconvenient, to be uncovered. And it is time to stop all attempts to undermine the credibility of a thorough, impartial, and independent investigation that the international community has no reason to doubt.
Russia does not have the track record to play the credible investigator here. Russia has repeatedly misled this Council, its own people, and the world about its support for illegal armed groups and its own military incursions into Ukraine. Just read the transcripts of the previous 24 Security Council sessions on Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Read Russia’s denials that it was arming and training separatists in Crimea, and later its denials that it had deployed troops to Crimea. Read Russia’s denials that it was arming and training separatists in eastern Ukraine, and later its denials that it had deployed troops to eastern Ukraine.
The Dutch Safety Board that has been delegated the authority by Ukraine, in line with ICAO standards, to investigate this crash. If Russia has evidence that it believes can help identify who shot down Flight MH 17, it has a responsibility to share that information with the independent investigators.
Too many lives have been lost and this conflict has gone on for too long. It is time for Russia to bring its intervention to an end. That is why we fully support the ceasefire and agreement signed in Minsk, which aims to de-escalate the conflict that has taken approximately 3,000 lives. We fully support a negotiated political solution to this crisis, as we have asserted since Russia’s incitements created the conflict. We welcome reports that Russia is decreasing its troop levels in eastern Ukraine – even if Russia continues to deny that its troops were there in the first place. And we welcome Russia’s recent statements expressing support for the ceasefire.
However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the crisis in eastern Ukraine, just like the occupation and annexation of Crimea before it, was manufactured by Moscow. And no country should support carving off pieces of sovereign Ukraine and handing them to the aggressors. The territorial integrity of Ukraine is non-negotiable.
Ukraine has demonstrated remarkably good faith in meeting its commitments. This week – notwithstanding the aggression against the state by the separatists and by Russian forces – Ukraine’s parliament passed legislation granting certain districts in eastern Ukraine special status that includes greater self-governance, economic control, and Russian language rights.
Now it is Russia’s turn. Russia must immediately withdraw all of its forces and equipment from Ukraine, including Crimea, and cease all forms of support and training for separatist groups. Russia and the separatists it backs must release all of their hostages and prisoners. Russia must finally close its borders to the flow of soldiers, separatists, tanks, artillery, and other machinery of war, and it must grant Ukraine control over its own border. Russia and the groups it backs must create an environment that allows the OSCE to fulfill its monitoring and verification mandate.
There is one very important imperative we must remember, which brings us back to why we convened today: truth. Two hundred and ninety-eight innocent people were killed on July 17th. The international community has identified an independent investigative body to uncover the truth about what happened to Flight MH 17. Today, we join the chorus of member states in reiterating our full support for the Dutch Safety Board’s investigation and we reject Russia’s efforts to disparage it or hinder its progress. The next step is the pursuit of justice. And when those responsible for this horrific crime are eventually identified, they will be punished.
Thank you.
