1. Ukrainian pro-Russia rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko with fellow rebels ++AUDIO LOWERED DUE TO MUSIC++
2. Zakharchenko greets fellow fighters ++AUDIO LOWERED DUE TO MUSIC++
3. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Zakharchenko, rebel leader:
"I think the investigation (into MH17) is going wrong. Why wouldn't experts take all the pieces until now? Why was the information of the black boxes held for so long? Why are commission conclusions still secret?"
4. Rebel standing guard
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Zakharchenko, rebel leader:
"This is a big tragedy. Any death is a tragedy... the Netherlands found it was a missile (that took down MH17), although they still can't say which one exactly. They are still arguing where it was shot from. But I can say we have no Buks (type of missile identified as having taken down flight MH17) and we have never had any. Since it was shot down by a Buk it could only have been from the Ukrainian territory and by the Ukrainian army."
6. Civilians with rebel flags, children enter school
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Zakharchenko, rebel leader:
"We have said before and we still say that we did not shoot down the plane (MH17). Ukraine is playing political games. It’s the country which should have closed its air space over the territory where fighting took place and it failed to do so. So who is playing political games?"
8. Rebels with flag
9. Children listening to Zakharchenko speaking
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Zakharchenko, rebel leader:
"I doubt that this region will be part of Ukraine. More likely Ukraine will be part of it."
11. Armed pro-Russia rebel stands on guard
12. Various of convoy of rebel leaders' cars leaving
A leader of pro-Russian rebels in the east of Ukraine on Wednesday insisted that his fighters had no part in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last year.
Speaking in the eastern city of Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko said, "We have said before and we still say that we did not shoot down the plane."
He blamed the Ukrainian government for what he called "political games."
The Boeing 777 crashed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 in the middle of a military conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
The Dutch Safety Board said in its final report released on Tuesday that the jet was destroyed by a Soviet-made Buk surface-to-air missile.
Two-thirds of the 298 people who were killed were Dutch, and the Netherlands was conducting the investigation.
Zakharchenko's comments came as Russia appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organisation to open a new probe into the incident.
The 15-month Dutch probe did not explicitly say who had fired it, but it identified an area of 320 square kilometres (120 square miles) where it said the launch must have taken place.
All of the land was in the hands of pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukrainian forces at the time of the disaster, according to daily maps of fighting released by the Ukrainian National Security Council.
