MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry has offered a firm response to statements by the chief of Ukraine's National Security Service Valentin Nalivaychenko, who has been trying to persuade the international commission to accept his version of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash over east Ukraine in July 2014.

“One cannot but feel angry about yet another attempt by the chief of a Ukrainian secret service to use absolutely groundless allegations in a bid to persuade the public at large about Russian military’s involvement in the Boeing crash in the skies over Ukraine,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“I would like to recall that the commanders of the so-called ‘anti-terrorist’ operation in the south-east of Ukraine, including Nalivaychenko himself, did their utmost at the end of August to prevent an international inquiry from visiting the site of the plane’s crash,” Konahsenkov said.

He pointed out that it had been Ukrainian troops, with Nalivaychenko's approval and contrary to Kiev’s official statements about the suspension of hostilities, launched a massive offensive against militias near Torez, using multiple rocket launchers Uragan, Grad and Smerch in order to eliminate the existing material evidence.