The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution condemning the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine with 298 people aboard.
It also demanded that armed groups allow “safe, secure, full, and unrestricted access” to the crash site.
The council adopted the Australia-proposed measure in a televised vote after a weekend of intense negotiations and widespread pressure on Russia to vote in favor.
The resolution also demands unimpeded international access to the crash site and accountability for those responsible.
Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, had indicated ahead of the vote that Moscow would be backing the text.
But the passage came with anger mounting at what many Western leaders regard as foot-dragging or outright obstruction by Russian-backed separatists on the ground near the crash site in eastern Ukraine as well as by Russia, which is thought to hold considerable influence over the armed enemies of the government in Kyiv.
Ahead of the UN vote, U.S. President Barack Obama said that “Russia — and President Putin in particular — has direct responsibility to compel them to cooperate with the investigation. That is the least that they can do,” he said, speaking from the White House.
He accused rebels of removing evidence from the crash site, adding, “All of which begs the question: What exactly are they trying to hide?”
Obama urged Moscow to respond to the airline tragedy to pivot away from its current strategy in Ukraine — where it has annexed Crimea and fueled armed separatists since President Viktor Yanukovych fled in late February — and warned that the “costs for Russia’s behavior will only continue to increase.”
Washington and the European Union have already passed several rounds of sanctions targeting senior individuals and legal entities in Russia and the separatist territories in Ukraine to persuade Moscow to stop feeding the violence.
“If Russia is not part of the solution, it will continue to be part of the problem,” UN Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the Security Council after the July 21 vote.