Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in an address to parliament that the aircraft was downed by a missile which seemed to have been launched by Russian-backed rebels . Julie Bishop , the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs , said in an interview on an Australian television programme that it was " extraordinary " that her Russian counterparts had refused to speak to her over the shootdown after the Russian ambassador was summoned to meet her . The Russian government was critical of Abbott 's response ; Abbott was one of the first world leaders to publicly connect the shootdown to Russia . Abbott later criticised the recovery efforts as " shambolic " , and " more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation " ; Bishop publicly warned separatist forces against treating the victims ' bodies as hostages . Abbott also said in an interview on 13 October 2014 , in anticipation of Russia 's President Vladimir Putin 's attendance at the 2014 G20 summit , scheduled for mid-November 2014 in Brisbane , Australia : " Australians were murdered . They were murdered by Russian-backed rebels using Russian-supplied equipment . We are very unhappy about this . " Russian President Putin said that Ukraine bore responsibility for the incident which happened in its territory , which he said would not have happened if hostilities had not resumed in the south-east of Ukraine . He also said that it was important to refrain from reaching hasty conclusions and politicised statements before the end of the investigation . He said that Russia would help an international inquiry led by the ICAO . At the end of July a Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev said in an interview for '' Die Welt '' that the separatists had shot down the plane by mistake and that Putin now realised he had supplied the weapon to the " wrong people " . The Danish Institute for International Studies has pointed out to the similarities of Russian reaction to the downing of Korean Airlines flight KAL-007 in 1983 where the USSR initially denied any involvement
Korean Airlines flight KAL-007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17