 "How Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines' Flight MH17, killing 298 people")
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a landmark ruling on Wednesday (July 10, 2025) that held the Russian state responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
The court also found Russia had committed widespread and systematic human rights abuses across Ukraine in the years following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The ECHR, which had consolidated four major cases involving Russia’s conduct in Ukraine, stated, “Taken as a whole, the vast volume of evidence before the Court presented a picture of interconnected practices of manifestly unlawful conduct by agents of the Russian State (Russian armed forces and other authorities, occupying administrations, and separatist armed groups and entities) on a massive scale across Ukraine.”
Specifically on MH17, the court found that Russia failed to properly investigate the downing, did not cooperate with international information requests, and provided no legal path for survivors’ families to seek justice.
The court noted that Russia’s ongoing denial of involvement had inflicted additional emotional harm on the victims’ relatives.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp commented after the ruling, “Nothing can take away this suffering and grief, but I hope the verdict offers a sense of justice and recognition.”
Ukraine’s Justice Ministry called the ruling “one of the most important in the practice of interstate cases.”
Nonetheless, the practical impact of the court’s ruling remains largely symbolic. Following its expulsion from the Council of Europe in 2022, Russia officially withdrew from the jurisdiction of the ECHR in 2023.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the court’s authority, saying, “We consider them null and void.”
As a result, the ECHR has no enforcement mechanism over Russia, though it is expected to decide later on the issue of damages and reparations.
What happened on that fateful day
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a commercial passenger aircraft travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was brought down over a volatile area of eastern Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of all 298 people aboard.
The Boeing 777, registered as 9M-MRD, had taken off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport at 10:31 UTC and was operating as a regularly scheduled 11.5-hour international flight.
Among the passengers were citizens from at least ten different countries, including 193 nationals of the Netherlands. The crew consisted of 15 Malaysian nationals.
Also on board was Dr. Joep Lange, a well-known researcher heading to an AIDS conference in Melbourne.
The aircraft was flying at an altitude of about 33,000 feet, as required by Ukrainian aviation restrictions introduced three days earlier, after a Ukrainian military aircraft had been shot down while flying at a lower elevation in the same region.
Flight MH17 was not alone in the skies that day — at least three other foreign civilian aircraft were in the same radar corridor.
Communication between MH17 and Ukrainian and Russian air traffic control continued routinely until just before 13:20 UTC. No distress signal was sent before the aircraft disappeared from radar screens at around 13:26 UTC.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing a midair explosion. The wreckage was spread across a large area near the village of Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, an area held by pro-Russian separatist forces.
The fuselage, cockpit, and other components were strewn across about 50 square kilometres, some of it landing in farmland and residential zones.
Rescue teams arrived at the scene quickly, but because the crash site was in separatist-controlled territory, international access to the area was significantly delayed.
Though the aircraft’s voice and flight data recorders were eventually handed over to Malaysian authorities, investigators organised by the Dutch Ministry of Defence were only able to reach the crash site in November, several months after the tragedy occurred.
Evidence traces the missile to Russia
Following extensive analysis, investigators ruled out weather-related causes, pilot error, internal explosions or mechanical failure.
Instead, a forensic reconstruction of the aircraft’s fuselage, along with analysis of recorded data and shrapnel patterns, indicated the jet was hit by a warhead from a Buk surface-to-air missile system, specifically designed to detonate near its target without making direct contact.
The missile exploded just feet away from the cockpit, killing the pilots instantly. The forward part of the fuselage separated from the rest of the aircraft, while the remaining sections, including the wings and passenger cabin, stayed airborne briefly before disintegrating and crashing to the ground.
Soon after the crash, Ukraine’s government released audio recordings of what it said were intercepted communications between pro-Russian militants who appeared to be discussing having mistakenly shot down an aircraft.
Initially, the separatists and Russian authorities denied responsibility and issued a series of alternate explanations, ranging from conspiracy theories to claims the Ukrainian military was involved.
Later, video footage emerged allegedly showing separatist fighters walking among the wreckage and expressing surprise at having hit a civilian aircraft. These visuals, along with technical findings, prompted a Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to conduct a deeper inquiry.
In September 2016, the JIT concluded that the missile which struck MH17 was launched from territory under the control of Russian-backed separatists, using a Buk launcher that had been brought in from the Russian Federation and returned the same day.
According to the JIT, the missile system originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian military.
The evidence, including satellite images, forensic reconstructions, eyewitness testimony and intercepted communications, formed the basis of legal and diplomatic efforts to hold Russia accountable.
How legal proceedings unfolded
In 2019, Dutch prosecutors announced charges against four men — three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian — for their roles in the downing of MH17.
Among them was Igor Girkin, a Russian citizen and former colonel of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), who was in charge of separatist military operations in Donetsk at the time. Girkin, who went by the alias “Strelkov”, left Ukraine for Russia within weeks of the attack.
The Dutch investigative team stated, “We have evidence showing that Russia provided the missile launcher.”
Trials were held in absentia due to the difficulty of securing extradition. In November 2022, a Dutch court convicted Girkin and two others of murder and concluded that the missile had been launched by Russian-led troops using equipment delivered from Russia.
Context of the Donbas War
The destruction of MH17 occurred amid one of the most active phases of the Donbas war, a part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
After the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine and Russia’s seizure of Crimea in March 2014, unrest spread to the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk — collectively known as Donbas.
On April 12, 2014, a paramilitary group led by Igor Girkin captured the town of Sloviansk and other strategic locations. Backed by Moscow, separatists proclaimed the formation of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Though Russia initially denied deploying troops, it later acknowledged that many separatist fighters were Russian veterans.
Ukraine responded by launching a military operation dubbed the “Anti-Terrorist Operation.” By mid-2014, Ukrainian forces had reclaimed significant territory, but Moscow escalated the conflict by covertly sending in tanks, artillery, and soldiers, enabling separatist forces to regain lost ground.
In August 2014, just weeks after MH17 was shot down, Russia increased its involvement, effectively turning the regional rebellion into a proxy war.
The Minsk I and II ceasefire agreements, signed in late 2014 and early 2015 respectively, failed to bring lasting peace. Sporadic fighting, artillery strikes, and trench warfare continued for years.
Observers from the OSCE documented over 30,000 individuals in military uniform crossing from Russia into Ukraine, along with unmarked convoys of military hardware.
By the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war in Donbas had claimed approximately 14,000 lives, including about 3,400 civilians.
More than two million people had fled the region due to the conflict. The shootdown of MH17 stood out not only for its international profile but also for symbolising how the localised war in Donbas had global repercussions.
Despite legal rulings, international outrage, and overwhelming evidence, Russia continues to deny responsibility in the the downing of MH17.
With inputs from agencies
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