President Zelenskyy honors MH17 victims on ninth anniversary of war crime
On July 17, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash, which was shot down by Kremlin-controlled Donetsk militants nine years ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Twitter.
Zelenskyy emphasized that the tragedy caused by the actions of Russia will never be forgotten.
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"Our thoughts and hearts are with the families and loved ones of each and every one of the 298 victims," Zelenskyy said.
“This tragedy caused by the aggressor will never be forgotten. The invading state, the terrorist state will be held fully accountable for all crimes committed in Ukraine.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, also spoke about the tragedy, noting that Russia has been lying about the crash for years because it wants to avoid responsibility for its crime.
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"Russia shot down MH17 9 years ago, killing all 298 people aboard," he said on Twitter.
“It lied about the tragedy for years trying to dodge accountability, until the Dutch trial stated the truth. We mourn the MH17 victims and reiterate: accountability for Russian crimes is inevitable.”
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the world to bring all those responsible for the tragedy to justice.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. As the subsequent investigation proved, the plane was hit by a missile from the Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile system over the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.
All 298 people on board, including 80 children, were killed. This is the largest number of casualties in the history of aviation from all cases of downing civilian airliners.
On Nov. 17, 2022, the Dutch District Court of The Hague sentenced Igor ‘Strelkov’ Girkin, Leonid Kharchenko, and Sergey Dubinsky to life imprisonment.
They were found guilty of 298 counts of murder — for each passenger and crew member of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.
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Another defendant in the case, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted by the court. Those found guilty must pay 16 million euros ($17.2 million) in compensation to the relatives of the victims.
In August 2014, the Joint Investigation Team was established, which included representatives of Russia. In July 2015, Russia blocked a proposal at the UN Security Council to establish an international tribunal to investigate the MH17 crash.
In 2016, the Joint Investigation Team officially released the results of its investigation into the downing of MH17, determining that the plane was shot down by a Buk missile system that had been delivered to occupied Donbas from Russia.
A report by the Joint Investigation Team published in February 2023 showed that there were "strong grounds" to believe that the decision to supply the Buk anti-aircraft missile system to the “DPR” militants was made personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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