AMSTERDAM – On Wednesday, the Netherlands commemorated the 298 victims of flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine a decade ago. The solemn ceremony, held at the MH17 monument in the village of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, was attended by the bereaved and representatives from Malaysia, Australia, Britain, Belgium, and Ukraine.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, amidst fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces—a precursor to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All passengers and crew on board, including 196 Dutch citizens, were killed, with the plane’s wreckage and victims’ remains scattered across fields of corn and sunflowers.
An international investigation concluded that the plane was shot down by a Russian missile system. A Dutch court in 2022 confirmed there was no doubt that Moscow had “overall control” of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic forces in eastern Ukraine from May 2014. Russia continues to deny any involvement.
During the ceremony, loved ones read aloud the names of all the victims. Mark Rutte, who was the prime minister at the time of the disaster and has been a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, received applause for his efforts to keep international attention on the incident during his tenure.
The Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader in absentia of murder for their role in transporting the Russian military BUK missile system into eastern Ukraine, which was used to down the plane. Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who took office earlier this month, emphasized that while a conviction is significant, “a conviction is not the same as having someone behind bars.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asserted on X (formerly Twitter) that Russia’s accountability “is inevitable,” and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba added, “In fact, Russia murdered the MH17 victims twice. First with a missile. Second, with lies that abused their memory and hurt their relatives.”
Despite Moscow’s denial of responsibility for MH17’s downing and its claimed absence in Ukraine at the time, EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Russia to finally accept its responsibility. “The evidence presented makes it abundantly clear that the BUK surface-to-air missile system used to bring down Flight MH17 belonged beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” Borrell said. “No Russian disinformation operation can distract from these basic facts, established by a court of law.”