Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium have called for such a tribunal and Malaysia has circulated a draft resolution to that effect with a vote set for Wednesday around 1900 GMT.

Ukraine and the West have been accusing pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine saying there is evidence it was hit by a Russian-supplied Buk anti-aircraft missile while Russia denies all allegations.

That the outcome had been achieved by use of the veto was of “special regret” to New Zealand, McCully said.

Australia is sponsoring the resolution in a bid to bring justice to the families of the 298 victims.

Malaysia believes that an global tribunal sanctioned by the UN Security Council would be the best mechanism to deliver justice for the victims of MH17 since it would create a legal obligation for all UN member states to cooperate with the proposed tribunal.

Russian Federation was the one which voted against, but since it is a permanent member of the Security Council the document was vetoed.

“A veto should not be used to delay justice”, said Ms. Bishop in a statement.

All 298 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 777 were killed when the Malaysia Airlines plane was blown out of the sky over Ukraine during a routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur on July 17 past year.

“Malaysia did include some language from our draft in their draft text but it did not go to the core of our concern, they kept insisting on the need to establish right now an worldwide criminal court”, Russian United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Reuters on Friday.

“A UN tribunal would have ensured that there was the broadest possible support for the prosecution process”, he said, adding that the five countries would now discuss alternatives on both national and global levels.

“Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations”, said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN.

The Dutch Safety Board is due to release a final report on the cause of the crash in October.

Bishop, in a speech shortly after the vote, said it was “inconceivable the security council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial aeroplane”. “There can be no reason to oppose this unless you are a perpetrator yourself”, he said. Mikhail Korostik, an independent political analyst, said that Russia fears that in a criminal investigation, line of enquiries would be extended from the Donbass militias, “who would undoubtedly be blamed by the tribunal”, to Russian military officials.