I refer to the letter (July 26) which said that “Russia’s involvement [in the July 17 tragedy of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17] is unmistakable”. This makes one wonder: does this gentleman have his own reliable sources which allow him to make such preposterous statements when even the US intelligence officials have failed to produce any evidence to support this frantic claim?

Of course, he is not alone in his delusion and it is hard to blame him and other misguided people living in the atmosphere of violent media attacks on Russia. But it is a pity that some of them rush to conclusions without realising that unfounded accusations lead to nothing.

Russia has been calling for an independent international investigation under the aegis of ICAO and the UN (which is yet to be concluded) ever since July 17. Our country was also quick to release its military monitoring data pertaining to the tragedy and is now appealing to Kiev to publish recordings of conversations between Ukrainian traffic controllers and the MH17 crew, which Ukraine very suspiciously has been keeping under wraps.

As President Vladimir Putin said on July 21, if military operations had not resumed in eastern Ukraine on June 28, this terrible tragedy probably could have been avoided. It is also true that all the lives claimed by the raging fratricide, especially among civilians (a fact recently acknowledged by the UN and Human Rights Watch), could have been saved had it not been for the orchestrated armed coup that took place in Kiev earlier this year.

May I suggest that instead of putting all the blame on Russia the ‘informed reader’ appeals to Kiev to fulfil its promises, including those made in the presence of international mediators, to stop the punitive military operation in the south-east of Ukraine and to sit at the negotiating table so that the parties involved find a peaceful solution to the bloody conflict.