New York: Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop will make a last ditch appeal for Russia to abstain, rather than veto, a United Nations push to establish an international tribunal to prosecute the people who shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
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The appeal will be made at a meeting in New York Ms Bishop is scheduled to hold with Russia's UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Australia time.
And while it looks increasingly likely that the Malaysia-proposed, Australia-backed motion to establish a tribunal will win the required 9 of 15 votes, a Russian veto could sink the pursuit of justice for the 298 people, including 39 Australians, who died when MH17 was shot out of the sky on July 17, 2014.
Mr Churkin told Russian news agency Tass on Tuesday that "we will vote against. I have no doubt about that. If the resolution enrolls nine or more votes, we will veto it".
He argued the resolution would "create another hotspot of confrontation that might have far-reaching impacts on international relations".
The crunch vote on the independent criminal tribunal is due in the early hours of Thursday morning,
But the Malaysia resolution is being backed by a host of nations including Australia, France, Lithuania, Malaysia, Spain, the UK, US, Belgium, Netherlands and Ukraine.
And Ms Bishop is still cautiously optimistic that a breakthrough may emerge from the meeting and an independent prosecutor, selected by UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, will be appointed.
She told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that the UN simply "cannot allow a veto in the United Nations Security Council to avoid justice".
"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 said.
The crunch Russian meeting is one of a dozen Ms Bishop will hold on Tuesday with members of the UN Security Council, including China, the United States, Chad, Jordan and New Zealand.
It's understood that China – which also has a veto – and Angola and Venezuela may all abstain on the resolution.
