Bishop said: “It is certainly consistent with the intelligence advice that we received 12 months ago, that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile”.
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Ukrainian and Western authorities believe the plane was shot down by a missile fired by Russian-backed separatists.
A preliminary report released in the Netherlands previous year said the plane had no technical problems in the seconds before it broke up in the sky after being struck by multiple objects – a conclusion that experts said likely pointed to a missile strike.
If a report from the Dutch Safety Board, due in October, concludes that rebels shot the plane down with a Russian-made missile, it would undermine Russia’s denials and could pave the way for court cases and prosecutions.
The video also shows men, holding guns and dressed in army camouflage, wandering among the downed plane’s wreckage, rifling through bags and scattering their contents on the ground.
Villagers carrying flowers gathered in the church in the center of Hrabove at the start of a procession to the crash site in nearby fields.
As revealed on Friday, Russian-backed rebels filmed their own arrival at the site of the crash where they were expecting to see a Ukrainian fighter aircraft they had just shot down and instead found a burning commercial aircraft downed killing all 298 on board.
“Salam alaikum and good evening”, she said, her voice trembling.
According to a BBC report, locals from Grabove village – closest to the crash site in Ukraine – held a ceremony. Speaking Friday to reporters in Kyiv, he said he was shocked at “how little has changed”.
Meanwhile, News Corps Australia exposed footage yesterday showing Russian rebels rummaging through the luggage of passengers and crew from Flight MH17.
As the bereaved marked the sombre anniversary around the world, Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko said it was a “moral duty” to punish the “murderers” of the MH17 victims. “It would not have happened without the participation and an order from top political and military leaders of the neighbouring state”.
In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott unveiled a plaque inscribed with the names of Australian victims, which is set in soil that a police officer brought back from Ukraine.
“Today, our people recall this tragedy and share the grief and sorrow of the families who lost their loved ones”, he said. Some kissed the bouquets before they placed them, others kissed their fingers and pressed them against the plaque. The conversation also appears to back up Ukrainian and US claims that the rebels thought MH17 was a military plane when they shot it down.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin had “explained Russia’s position regarding the premature and counter-productive initiatives of several countries, including the Netherlands, on the establishment of an global tribunal”.
In the Netherlands, hundreds of relatives of those killed on MH17 were gathering Friday afternoon at a conference centre near the central city of Utrecht, an event organized by the relatives themselves.
He went on to say that parts of eastern Ukraine under rebel control would eventually be reclaimed by Kiev, and that “a memorial to the 298 innocent victims of the barbarian act of terrorism” would be erected in Hrabove.
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Some 193 of the victims were from the Netherlands, where flags flew at half-mast on public buildings.
