REUTERS

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok has said the Netherlands regrets Russia's decision to withdraw from talks on liability for the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in Donbas in 2014.

Read alsoRelatives of MH17 crash to seek damages from suspects, lawyers say – media"Today, the Russian Federation has announced its unilateral decision to suspend negotiations over its responsibility for the downing Flight MH17. The Netherlands deeply regrets this decision on the part of Russia. This refusal to continue with the talks is especially painful for the victims' next of kin," he wrote on Twitter, October 15.

Meanwhile, the government would like to emphasize that it is willing to resume negotiations, so as to reach a solution that does justice to the tremendous suffering and damage caused by the downing of Flight MH17.

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"At the same time, the government has always stressed that it does not rule out any options to achieve justice for the 298 victims and their loved ones," he added.

Background

  • 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.