MH17 — 11 years on, the fight for justice is far from over

Eleven years ago, on July 17, 2014, the sky over the occupied part of Donetsk Region was torn apart by the sound of an explosion. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger plane, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on flight MH17, was shot down by Russian invaders and became one of the most horrific symbols of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Today, on the anniversary of the tragedy, the editorial staff of Novyny.LIVE, like the rest of the world, commemorates the victims and analyses the long and difficult path to establishing the truth and bringing those responsible to justice.

What happened on July 17, 2014

There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members from 10 countries on board the aircraft, including 80 children. Citizens of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Great Britain, and other countries became victims of the war to which they had no connection.

The wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the victims fell on fields near the town of Hrabove, in an area that was already controlled by Russian hybrid forces at the time.

The scale of the tragedy shocked the world. It became clear almost immediately that this was not a plane crash, but the result of external interference. There was only one question: who did it and how?

Investigation: the long road to truth

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was set up to investigate the crash, comprising representatives from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine. For years, they meticulously gathered evidence: analysing rocket and aircraft debris, satellite images, radar data, as well as thousands of photos, videos, and intercepted telephone conversations between militants.

The key findings of the JIT were unequivocal:

• Weapon: The plane was shot down by the 9M38 series missile launched from the Buk anti-aircraft missile system.
• Launch site: The launch was carried out from a field near the occupied town of Pervomaiske in Donetsk Region.
• Origin of the Buk: The Buk anti-aircraft missile system belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, based in Kursk. It was illegally transported from Russia to Ukraine and hastily taken back after the launch.

Throughout the investigation, Russia denied its involvement, putting forward dozens of contradictory and refuted versions — from an attack by a Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft to the fault of Ukrainian Air Defence Systems.

The trial and the first verdicts

The investigation culminated in the trial that began in the Netherlands. On November 17, 2022, the District Court of The Hague handed down its first historic verdict.

The court found three people guilty of shooting down the plane and killing 298 people:
Igor Girkin (Strelkov), a Russian citizen and the so-called "Minister of Defense of the DPR". Sergey Dubinsky, a Russian citizen and colonel in the Russian GRU, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen who fought on the side of the militants.

All three were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. The court also ruled that they must pay more than €16 million in compensation to the relatives of the victims.

The fate of the murderers

All three, of course, were not present at the trial, as they are hiding in Russia. However, it is unlikely that they will ever be able to leave Russian territory — the warrants for their arrest are international.

But fate has originally dealt with Girkin: he was imprisoned by those for whom he fought and whose criminal interests he defended. Not only was he not allowed to "go to war" after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, but he was also sentenced to four years in prison.

Girkin was found guilty under the article on calls for extremist activity on the Internet — he was very critical of the Russian Ministry of Defence and Putin for their senseless actions on the front lines. Now his associates are also being "pressured" in various ways by "people in grey suits".

Why are the court's conclusions so important?

The most important aspect of the court's ruling was the legal recognition of the fact that, since May 2014, the Russian Federation had exercised "general control" over the armed formations of the "DPR". It means that Moscow is responsible for their actions, including the shooting down of MH17.

The MH17 tragedy is now seen not as an isolated, horrific episode, but as a harbinger of the full-scale war unleashed by Russia in 2022. The methods of lies, denial, and brutality demonstrated by the Kremlin in 2014 have become the basis of its policy today.

Unhealed wound

Behind the dry facts of investigations and court terms lies the pain of hundreds of families who have lost their loved ones. For them, these ten years have been a time of struggle for memory and justice. Memorials in the Netherlands and Australia, annual commemorative events — all this reminds us that the MH17 tragedy has no statute of limitations.

The world remembers. And the fight for complete justice continues.

As a reminder, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has made its historic ruling in the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia. The court upheld almost all of the claims made by the Ukrainian side and found Russia guilty of shooting down flight MH17.