The first reaction of Russia after being found responsible for the breaking of the MH17 passenger plane of Malaysia Airlines
The remains of the MH17 flight, photo: Alexander Ermochenko / Zuma Press / Profimedia Images
The Kremlin rejected on Tuesday, qualifying as a biased, a decision of the UN Aviation Council that Russia was responsible for breaking a Malaysian passenger plane over Ukraine, in 2017, incident with the death of all 298 passengers and crew members, Reuters reports.
“Our position is well-known. You know that Russia was not a country to have participated in the investigation of this incident, so we do not accept any biased conclusions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Tuesday afternoon, in his first press conference after the governments of the Netherlands and Australia made public.
The MH17 passenger plane was shot down above the east of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, all the passengers and crew members losing their lives following the tragedy that took place in the context of the struggles between the pro-Russian separatist forces and Donetsk with the Kiev armed forces.
The victims came from 17 countries, including 198 Dutch citizens, 43 from Malaysia, 38 Australians and 10 passengers in the UK. 80 of those who lost their lives were children.
The investigation on the tragedy was led by the Netherlands, with the participation of Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and Belgium.
Russia denied any involvement in the airline, at that time, denying any kind of involvement in Ukraine and claiming that the separatist war in the east of the country was triggered by “Russian patriots” after annexing Crimea.
Igor Ghirkin, sentenced to life imprisonment for the breaking of the MH17 aircraft
In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands convicted Igor Ghirkin, the former commander of the pro-Russian separatists in Donbas, to life imprisonment for his role in the breaking of the MH17 passenger plane.
Together with Ghirkin in this process organized in the Netherlands, the Russians Sergei Dubinski and Oleg Pulatov, former information officers, and the Ukrainian Leonid Harcenko, a leader of the pro-Russian separatists, who were believed to have led a military unit although he had no experience in this.
The Dutch court concluded that there is no “reasonable doubt” that the MH17 flight was shot down by a Russian anti -aircraft system, the defendants being accused of arranging for him to reach the separatists and organized his transport.
None of them were accused of personally participated in the breaking of the Malaysia Airlines company and they were all judged in absence. Along with Ghirkin, the Dutch court was sentenced to Dubinski and Harcenko, but paid Pulatov, a former Member of Special Forcesnaz/GRU.
“Only the most severe punishment is suitable for the facts of these suspects, which have caused so much suffering so many victims and so many relatives in life,” the case judge said.
Igor Ghirkin is currently executing a sentence to 4 years in prison in Russia, a court in Moscow finding him guilty, in January 2024, of “inciting extremism” after he criticized President Vladimir Putin and the military leadership of the country because of the way the war was held in Ukraine.
