Speaking to FMT, Noriah Daud, the mother of Ahmad Hakimi Hanapi Mohd Noor, said she believed the government was aware of the truth but perhaps did not want to tell the families.

Investigators probing the incident said in July that the missile which brought down the plane over eastern Ukraine four years ago originated from a Russian military brigade. All 298 people onboard died.

The JIT, which comprises officials from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, insisted that the warhead’s fingerprint was “so special” that it could only have come from the Russian military.

But a week later, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said there was “no conclusive evidence to pinpoint Russia”, and that Malaysia had to take into consideration diplomatic relations with the country.

Loke had also denied any suggestions that Malaysia was influenced by Russia when declaring there was no conclusive evidence to confirm that the country was responsible for the incident.

Noriah said she too was inclined to believe that the Russians were responsible, as she had been closely following the JIT’s findings.

“They (the government) haven’t told us why they don’t agree with the JIT’s findings. We hope they will because we want to know the truth.

“We hope the government will tell us the real situation, even the contents of the black box are unknown. Nothing should be kept secret.”

Noriah said the previous administration had been secretive and the new government had yet to tell the families anything either.

Loke’s remarks also caught the attention of Christo Grozev, an investigator with Bellingcat, a London-based reporting website that recently brought into the open some of Russia’s covert disruptions.

Calling the remarks “a surprising dissension”, he said Malaysia was “the only country that did not fully endorse the findings of the JIT”, according to a report by Australia’s ABC.