MH17
The crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 in east Ukraine.
Former US lawmaker Ron Paul says Washington is "hiding" the truth about the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine last month.

"The US government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a buck anti-aircraft missile," Paul wrote in an article published by Voices of Liberty on Thursday.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all the 298 people on board. The Boeing plane was en route from the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, to Kuala Lumpur when the accident happened at an altitude of 10 kilometers above eastern Ukraine.

US officials claim the plane was downed by a missile fired by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine but Paul says that claim is baseless because the US has not provided any evidence for it.

"It's hard to believe that the US, with all of its spy satellites available for monitoring everything in Ukraine, that precise proof of who did what and when is not available," the former congressman said.

"When evidence contradicts our government's accusations, the evidence is never revealed to the public - for national security reasons, of course. Some independent sources claim that the crash site revealed evidence that bullet holes may have come from a fighter jet. If true, it would implicate Western Ukraine," he added.

Paul also condemned US officials for not wanting to reveal the truth. "Too bad we can't count on our government to just tell us the truth and show us the evidence," he wrote. "I'm convinced that it knows a lot more than it's telling us."

Washington and Moscow have been at loggerheads over the crisis in Ukraine. The United States accuses Russia of supporting and arming pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, a claim which is rejected by the Kremlin.