US reaffirms commitment to holding accountable those responsible for downing flight MH17 in Ukraine

Jul 18 () –

US State Department Secretary Antony Blinken on Wednesday reaffirmed his commitment to holding accountable those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 for an incident that claimed the lives of all 298 people on board as they flew over an area occupied by pro-Russian groups in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

“Today we reaffirm our commitment to justice for the passengers of flight MH17 whose lives were senselessly cut short. In 2022, the Hague District Court found three members of the Russian forces in eastern Ukraine guilty of their involvement in the downing of the plane,” it said in a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the downing.

The secretary also stressed that there is still “more work to be done” to ensure that those responsible are held accountable, noting that the Joint Investigation Team concluded in 2018 that the plane was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile.

“Our thoughts remain with those who perished, and we join their friends, families and loved ones in honouring their memory. Our commemoration of the tenth anniversary of this tragedy takes place under the shadow of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which continues to impose brutal costs on the Ukrainian people,” he added.

In mid-November 2022, a court in The Hague sentenced Russian citizens Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinski, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko – who are in Russia – to life imprisonment ‘in absentia’ for the murder of the 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014.

The court held that the plane was hit by a missile launched from Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, whose authorities, however, insisted on Wednesday that the investigation that was carried out was not independent, did not take into account the Russian side and had a marked anti-Russian bias.