The UN’s aviation council ruled on Monday that Russia was responsible for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that killed all 298 passengers and crew, including more than 200 Dutch and Australian citizens.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on July 17th, 2014, and was shot down over eastern Ukraine as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.
The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected as biased the ruling by the UN aviation council, which is based in Montreal.
In the first ruling of its kind, the council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreed with claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands that Russia shot down the Malaysian passenger jet, saying the accusations “were well founded in fact and in law”.
In doing so, Russia “failed to uphold its obligations under international air law,” the body said in a statement.
Responding, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Our position is well known. You know that Russia was not a country that took part in the investigation of this incident, so we do not accept any biased conclusions.”
In November 2022, Dutch judges convicted two Russian men and a Ukrainian man in absentia of murder for their role in the attack. Moscow called the ruling “scandalous” and said it would not extradite its citizens.
The case centres on allegations that on July 17th, 2014, Russia used surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine to down the aircraft, constituting a breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which bars states from “resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.”
“The (ICAO) decision is an important step towards establishing the truth and achieving justice and accountability for all victims of Flight MH17, and their families and loved ones,” Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a statement.
“This decision also sends a clear message to the international community: states cannot violate international law with impunity.”
In the coming weeks the ICAO council will consider what form of reparation is in order, according to the statement. The attack killed 196 Dutch citizens and 38 Australian citizens or residents aboard the flight.
The ICAO lacks regulatory power but holds moral suasion and sets global aviation standards overwhelmingly adopted by its 193-member states.
The MH17 case was launched in 2022 by Australia and the Netherlands. Both countries want the ICAO Council to order Russia to enter into negotiations over reparations, Mr Veldkamp said.
“The Australian government welcomes the ICAO Council’s decision and urges it to move swiftly to determine remedies for this violation,” Australia‘s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said in a statement posted online.
“We call upon Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct, as required under international law.”
The ruling comes as Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim travels to Russia this week where he will meet president Vladimir Putin to discuss co-operation in trade and investment, as well as aerospace and energy. It is unclear if they will discuss the ruling.
The downing of MH17 over Ukraine and the disappearance of MH370 the same year have had severe financial consequences for Malaysia Airlines, driving a share price slump that eventually saw the company delisted from Malaysia‘s stock exchange.
At the time of the incident, Ukraine accused “terrorists” – militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia – of shooting down the Boeing 777 with a Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile.
Leaders of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic rebels denied any involvement, although around the same time their military commander said his forces had downed a Ukrainian transport plane.
In 2018, international investigators said the Buk missile that destroyed the jet was supplied by a Russian military unit.
An interim report by the investigators, published in the Netherlands, traced the missile to Russia’s 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade, based in the western city of Kursk, and added that “all the vehicles in the convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces”. – Agencies
