Ukraine has called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over occupied Donbas on July 17, 2014.
"Ukraine calls on Russia to accept its responsibility and adhere to its international obligations, namely under the UN SC Resolution 2166, to cooperate with the ongoing investigation and criminal proceedings," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on July 17.
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"On this day, when we commemorate the sixth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 and the death of 298 people of 17 nationalities, our thoughts and condolences are with all those who lost their loved ones. Ukraine remains fully committed to joint efforts with the JIT partners to bring to justice those responsible for the MH17 downing," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian side commends the beginning of criminal proceedings that will inevitably bring to justice those responsible for the downing of MH17, and reiterate its full support to the proceedings led by the Dutch prosecutors.
"We are moreover taking steps within the proceedings in the ICJ to hold Russia accountable for the breach of its obligations under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which led to the downing of MH17," the ministry said.
Another important step is the decision of the Netherlands to bring the case against Russia in the ECHR in order to hold Russia liable in view of its role in the downing of MH17, it added.
UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over Russia-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.
On June 19, 2019, JIT investigators accused four Russia-controlled military intelligence officers of involvement in a missile attack that shot down MH17. The first four suspects in the MH17 case are Russian terrorist Igor Girkin (AKA "Strelkov"), who in the summer of 2014 was the so-called "Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"); Russian General Sergei Dubinsky (nom de guerre "Khmuryi"), who led the "DPR intelligence;" Oleg Pulatov (nom de guerre "Gyurza"), who in 2014 headed of "the 2nd division of the GRU of the DPR;" as well as Leonid Kharchenko (nom de guerre "Krot"), who was a leader of the "reconnaissance battalion" of Russia-led forces.
The MH17 trial process began on March 9, 2020.
