MH17 crash: Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General discusses investigation with Ambassador of Netherlands

As noted, the international Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is currently examining all the circumstances of the plane crash in the sky over the occupied part of Donbas.

“The Ukrainian side coordinates its work with JIT partners. We are doing everything possible to identify all those involved in this crime. The purpose of further investigation is to identify the BUK system operators and high-ranking officials who gave orders to send the surface-to-air missile system to Ukraine," Giunduz Mamedov said, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office informs.

In addition, the parties discussed the filing of the Netherlands’ lawsuit against Russia over the downing of the plane at the European Court of Human Rights. Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General assured that if Ukraine decided to join the lawsuit, the Prosecutor General’s Office would provide all the necessary information.

The trial of four defendants in MH17 case is ongoing in the District Court of The Hague. The hearings will resume on August 31; the lawyers of victims' families will deliver speeches and the motions of lawyers of one defendant will be considered.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The JIT reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called “Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic” and Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic.”

In March this year, the District Court of The Hague began its consideration of the case of the downing of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

On July 10, 2020, the Dutch government decided to bring Russia before the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the downing of flight MH17.

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