Ten years ago, the occupiers shot down flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas: what the court in The Hague decided and whether Russia will be made to pay for the crime

On Wednesday, July 17, it will be ten years since the Russian occupiers shot down Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, flight MH17 from the Netherlands to Malaysia, with a Buk missile in the skies over the Donetsk region. There were 298 people on board, including 15 crew members, and all of them died.

Only two years ago, the Hague Tribunal found two Russian citizens and one Ukrainian guilty and sentenced them to life in absentia, and today the European Union has again called on the aggressor country Russia to admit its responsibility. Ten years later, OBOZ.UA recalls what is known about the case, the defendants, and whether the world will finally be able to make Russia pay for this crime.

A black day for Ukraine and the world

On July 17, 2014, at about 16:00, communication with the Boeing 777 aircraft, which was flying flight MH17 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), was interrupted. At that moment, it was flying over the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

The passenger plane was shot down by a "Buk" anti-aircraft missile system delivered from the Russian Federation and deployed near the town of Snizhne in the Donetsk region, a territory temporarily occupied and controlled by the Russian Armed Forces and created by Russian special services and an armed group of local collaborators subordinate to the Russian military command.

Immediately after the downing of the plane, intercepted messages from Russian terrorists about a "birdfall" and threats to continue shooting down everything that flies in the sky over the occupied part of Donbas appeared on social media. The war criminals did not even hide because they believed that they had shot down an An-26 transport aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force. The Kremlin media enthusiastically reported this at the time, praising the "Donbas militia."

But as soon as it became clear that the downed plane was a passenger flight MH17, the Russian terrorists' messages were deleted from social media. At the same time, the propagandistic Russian media launched a powerful disinformation campaign with the main goal of blaming Ukraine for everything.

The investigation into the downing of MH17

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), consisting of Ukraine, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium, and Australia, has been investigating the crash for six years. Throughout this time, the aggressor country of Russia obstructed the investigation.

Eventually, it found that there were no malfunctions on the plane, the flight continued normally, and the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile fired from a Buk missile system belonging to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces. The system and the occupiers who maintained it were based in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. The day before, the system was brought to the occupied part of Donbas, probably to the area of Snizhne, through the uncontrolled section of the border with Russia. The night after the downing, the Buk was returned to the Russian base.

The criminal trial in the MH17 case began on March 9, 2020, in the Netherlands and lasted 2.5 years.

Who was found guilty of the disaster

There were four suspects in the case, three of whom were found guilty by the court in The Hague: Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.

Igor Girkin (Strelkov) is a retired officer of the Russian Armed Forces, former FSB colonel, and former leader of the pro-Russian terrorist group "People's Militia of Donbas". He was the first so-called Minister of Defense of the "DPR". He led the siege of Sloviansk in 2014. In January 2024, he was convicted in Russia "for public calls for extremist activities".

Sergei Dubinsky ("Frowny") is a major general in the Russian army who was a subordinate of Girkin at the time of the downing of the passenger plane. He is also a GRU colonel and former head of the so-called military intelligence of the militants in the "DPR". In January 2015, the Kremlin removed him from this position and banned him from entering the occupied territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, Dubinsky was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison.

Leonid Kharchenko ("Krot") is a native of the Donetsk region who in 2014 was the commander of one of the intelligence units of the so-called GRU "DNR". Together with the fourth suspect in the MH17 case, Oleg Pulatov, he accompanied the "Buk" in Donbas. In 2020, according to the BBC, Kharchenko was taken into custody in the temporarily occupied Donetsk and allegedly accused of illegal search and possession of weapons. The source said that this was done to protect him from being "kidnapped by the SSU."

The court in The Hague ruled that the perpetrators did not intend to shoot down the Boeing 777 (although the investigation is still investigating who launched the missile from the Buk), they allegedly aimed at a Ukrainian military aircraft, but intent is still not a mitigating circumstance.

All three militants were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. None of them filed an appeal. Currently, all of them are either in Russia or on the territories of Ukraine captured by Russia. The court did not demand their extradition, explaining that "the Russian Federation does not extradite citizens." The Kremlin called the verdict "politically motivated".

The court acquitted the fourth suspect, Oleg Pulatov. Prosecutors had previously indicated that he could have been involved in the security of the Buk at the launch site, but they lacked evidence.

Will Russia be punished

In 2020, the Dutch government appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to recognize Russia's responsibility for the deaths of 298 passengers and crew members of the Malaysia Airlines plane. And also for refusing to properly investigate the case. The trial is still ongoing.

The Dutch government has pointed out that Moscow played a key role in the crash, and that Russia's ongoing disinformation campaign about the downed plane is a gross violation of the civil rights of the victims' relatives. The Kremlin continues to categorically deny these accusations.

After the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the aggressor country even passed a law that refused to comply with the decisions of the European Court that came into force after March 15, 2022.

Therefore, experts say that the final decision in the MH17 case may take years. Theoretically, if Russia loses the case, the ECHR could order it to pay compensation to the victims. However, in reality, this decision will remain symbolic.

However, payments have no statute of limitations. As a result, the history of compensation owed by Moscow under the ECHR rulings may repeat the scenario of the Soviet Union paying off the tsarist debts of the Russian Empire.

On the tenth anniversary of the Boeing 777 plane crash downed by Russian militants over Donbas on July 17, 2014, the European Union once again called on Moscow to admit its responsibility. An official letter on behalf of all member states was published by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

"No Russian disinformation operation can divert attention from these basic facts established by the court. The European Union once again calls on the Russian Federation to recognize its responsibility for this tragedy and to cooperate fully in the pursuit of justice," the diplomat emphasized.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that on the day Russian killers shot down MH17 in the Ukrainian sky, the whole world saw who came to wage war against Ukraine and that Russian evil is a threat not only to Ukrainians.

"298 people were killed, including 80 children. Citizens of a dozen countries from different parts of the world. Russian responsibility for this is inevitable. And everyone guilty of this and other Russian war crimes will definitely hear a well-deserved sentence. Eternal memory to all victims of Russian aggression!" Zelenskyy wrote on his official Telegram channel and also published a video on the anniversary of the tragedy.

Compensation and commemoration of MH17 victims

In total, the Netherlands has allocated at least €16 million to compensate the families of the victims. The amount of compensation is €40-50 thousand. The money was supposed to be received within eight months after the verdict was announced (if someone had appealed, the payments would have been delayed).

On July 17, 2017, the National MH17 Monument was unveiled in the Netherlands, where relatives of the victims planted 298 trees in honor of each victim and sunflowers that grew at the crash site. On the tenth anniversary of the crash, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Prime Minister Dick Schoof took part in a commemoration at the monument. The event was attended by about 1,300 relatives of the victims, Dutch officials, and representatives of Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Ukraine.

"The downing of flight MH-17 by Russian terrorists took the lives of 298 innocent people. Years pass, and Russia continues to follow its bloody path, openly lying to the whole world and destroying the lives of millions. And today, Ukraine, together with the civilized world, must put an end to this endless Russian violence!" the SSU said on the tenth anniversary of the horrific crime.

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