Revisiting Russia's Role in the Downing of Malaysian Flight MH17 After 10 Years

Ten years ago today, a Malaysian passenger plane traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down in an area controlled by militants in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers, including 80 children. Efforts to seek justice and hold accountable those responsible for the incident, including the President of Russia, continue. An international investigative team has proven, during what has been described as 'one of the toughest inspections in history,' that this passenger plane was targeted by a missile system supplied by Russia to the militants in eastern Ukraine. Investigators have pointed the finger at Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, as the official who 'approved the delivery of that system to the militants.' However, Moscow continues to deny its responsibility for the incident. Commemorating the victims, a memorial ceremony was held on July 17 (27 Tir) in Vijfhuizen, Netherlands, near Amsterdam's international airport, marking the tenth anniversary of the downing of flight MH17. Ten years ago, from there, a Boeing 777 belonging to Malaysian Airlines took off with 283 passengers and 15 crew members but never reached its destination; 193 of the passengers on flight MH17 were Dutch citizens. This year, a ceremony was also held in Canberra, the capital of Australia, where 38 of the victims were Australian citizens or permanent residents. Australian Foreign Minister (fourth from the right) along with several other Australian officials, including the Federal Police, attended the tenth anniversary ceremony of the downing of flight MH17. Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister of Australia, emphasized that his government continues to pursue justice and accountability for the victims and their families and to hold all those involved in this 'horrific violent act' accountable. Peter Hutton, the leader of the Australian opposition, deemed Putin 'responsible' for the downing of flight MH17. The European Union has once again issued a statement urging Russia to accept its responsibility for the event and to take action for justice. Ten years ago, following the victory of the 'Maidan Revolution' in Ukraine and the flight of then-President Viktor Yanukovych to Moscow, Russia announced the deployment of unmarked soldiers in Crimea and held a sham referendum for the annexation of this Ukrainian peninsula to its territory. The Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine were the next target. By the summer of 2014, Ukrainian militants, with Russian assistance, had seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. The Ukrainian army was attempting to reclaim these areas. International investigations into flight MH17 indicate that in July 2014, Russia delivered a Buk missile system to militants who until then were mostly equipped with light weapons so they could shoot down Ukrainian fighter jets. According to findings from the international investigative team, flight MH17 crashed as a result of the explosion of a warhead that struck the left side of the plane near its nose; this missile has been described as one mounted on a Buk surface-to-air missile system. Ukrainian rescuers are transferring the bodies of the victims at the crash site of flight MH17. Minutes after the downing of the passenger plane with flight number MH17, Russian news agencies, which were responsible for the political propaganda of the militants in eastern Ukraine, reported the downing of 'a Ukrainian military plane'; shortly after, these reports were deleted. From intercepted phone conversations of the militants provided to investigators, it is evident that they celebrated after a Buk missile hit a 'Ukrainian military plane.' After the news of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane over eastern Ukraine became public, the Buk missile system was immediately returned to Russia. In response to the disclosure of these details by the international investigative team, the then-Prime Minister of Ukraine stated that 'the drunken separatists' did not have the knowledge or capability to use the Russian missile. Moscow had always denied military intervention in Ukraine until two and a half years ago when it began a large-scale military invasion and denied supplying weapons to militants in eastern Ukraine. However, among the documents available to the MH17 investigative team is a phone conversation between Putin and one of the leaders of the militants in Ukraine regarding the weapons that Russia could supply to them. Russia has consistently labeled the evidence presented by the international investigative team as fake. The bodies of the victims of the downing of flight MH17 of Malaysian Airlines in the area controlled by Ukrainian separatists. On the other hand, experts monitoring fake news under the European Union's foreign policy chief have reported that over the past decade, they have had to inform about false reports from Russia regarding flight MH17 more than 480 times. The international investigative team, consisting of representatives from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine, has not been able to identify and name all those responsible for the downing of flight MH17, but it has firmly concluded that 'no scenario other than the impact of a Buk missile can account for the downing of flight MH17.' Two years ago, a court in the Netherlands sentenced two former Russian security officials named Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky, and a Ukrainian separatist commander named Leonid Kharchenko, to life imprisonment in absentia for the downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane. According to the court ruling, these three were involved in the transfer of the Russian Buk missile system to eastern Ukraine, although they did not personally fire the missile. The fourth defendant in this case, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted due to 'insufficient evidence.' Igor Girkin has become a fierce critic of the Russian President and his senior military officials since the onset of Russia's large-scale military invasion of Ukraine and was accused earlier this year of 'inciting extremist activities' and sentenced to four years in prison. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is currently examining allegations of human rights violations in areas controlled by Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine and has accepted initial evidence of Russia's responsibility in the downing of flight MH17. Ukraine and its Western allies have also accused Russia in the International Court of Justice of violating its commitments in the fight against terrorism by supporting militants in eastern Ukraine; this court accepted that Russia violated some provisions of the anti-terrorism treaty but refrained from condemning Russia for the downing of flight MH17, claiming that supplying weapons does not equate to supporting terrorism. The International Court of The Hague has formed many cases regarding air disasters, but before the MH17 case, it had only one case regarding the downing of a passenger plane by a missile: the downing of Iran Air flight 655 by a guided missile from a U.S. Navy ship just over thirty years ago. Following the downing of the Ukrainian plane over Tehran, Kyiv has repeatedly emphasized the need for international investigations similar to those conducted regarding flight MH17. Although this request has gone unanswered, the affected countries have filed complaints against Iran in the International Court of Justice.