"Today, lighting candles in remembrance, we're bowing our heads to the 298 innocent victims of the MH17 flight. A terrible tragedy and unspeakable pain, which touched the hearts of their relatives and friends, each of us, on that day, as now. It was a barefaced crime that could have been avoided if not for Russian aggression, the Russian system and a Russian missile that came from Russian territory," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.
Poroshenko stressed that "our responsibility before the dead and before next generations is to show the aggressor's terrorists that responsibility is unavoidable for all the crimes committed."
According to Poroshenko, that is why he decided to transfer the investigation to the Netherlands on the first days after the tragedy.
"Without hesitation and according to my powers, I signed an agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands a few days ago that confirmed the selection of a mechanism for bringing to justice those responsible for this crime," the president said.
Read alsoUK welcomes use of Dutch national prosecution for MH17 suspectsPoroshenko stressed that this is "our common response to the geopolitical ambitions of those who are trying to derail the establishment of the truth at the highest international level."
"I am convinced that the objective and impartial Dutch justice will complete this path. It is our shared duty in the face of the memory of those whose beating hearts were stopped exactly three years ago by a Russian missile," he wrote.
UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over militant-occupied territory in Donetsk region. All 298 people on board who were citizens of 10 countries were killed in the crash. The majority of the victims, 196, were citizens of the Netherlands. The Dutch Safety Board October 13, 2015, issued a report on the causes of the accident. It was revealed that the plane had been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in its report published on September 28, 2016, confirmed that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk brought to Ukraine from Russia. The missile launch site was located in militant-controlled Pervomaisk. Nearly 100 people are among the suspects in the case. Russia said the report could not be perceived as the "ultimate truth," calling the JIT conclusions "preliminary." Bellingcat's team of investigative journalists published a report on June 5 with proof that the Buk originated from Russia.
