The UN Security Council is to vote today on a resolution sponsored by Malaysia, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Australia seeking accountability for the firing of a suspected missile that destroyed Flight MH17 last year over Ukraine.

A media report said yesterday that Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is pushing for a unanimous vote to set up an independent tribunal into the downing of the Malaysian airliner on July 17, 2014.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, has vowed to block the resolution calling for the establishment of an independent tribunal.

Bishop said a Russian veto would deny justice to the 298 people killed in the crash.

“We cannot allow a veto in the United Nations Security Council to avoid justice,” Bishop told The Sydney Morning Herald as she arrived in New York to lobby Russia and its allies in closed-door meetings before the vote.

“We owe it to the families to pursue those responsible. We owe it to those who are still suffering and grieving over the loss of their loved ones aboard MH17. They will not have closure in their lives until this matter is completed.”

She rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier remarks that it was “premature” and “counterproductive” for the United Nations to vote on an independent tribunal.

“If that were Russia’s concern, then I would expect that Russia would abstain, but I will be advocating for a unanimous resolution,” Bishop said.

That would require all 15 members to support the vote.

“Any further delay sends a very bad message to the increasing number of non-state actors who are capable of such an atrocity,” Bishop said. “The international community needs to be utterly united in condemning any attack on civilian airlines in commercial airspace.”

Last week, Russia presented the Security Council with its own draft resolution, which did not call for a tribunal.

The resolution submitted for today’s vote incorporates elements of the Russian resolution but keeps the call for a tribunal, which is the main sticking point for Russia.

“We will vote against. I have no doubt in that,” Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, told the Russian Tass news agency on Monday.

The push for a tribunal comes as a follow-up to a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on July 21, 2014, that called for “a full, thorough and independent international investigation” into the downing.

- dpa