Seven years after MH17 crash: Ukraine’s Prosecutor General elaborates on investigation

"We are closely following the trial and provide all necessary assistance for the trial at the request of the Dutch side. However, the investigation into the downing of MH17 Flight did not end. Together with partners from the international Joint Investigation Team, we continue the investigation which aims to identify other persons involved in this crime, including those who launched the missile and gave the relevant orders," Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova posted on her Facebook page on the eve of the anniversary of the tragedy.

Venediktova assured that the Ukrainian law enforcement officers were doing their utmost to make the relatives of the victims feel justice and the world know the truth.

According to her, every crime committed in the context of the armed conflict and related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation requires the establishment of the truth. In 2014-2020, almost 30,000 such criminal offenses were registered in the territory of Ukraine, Venediktova noted.

"War crimes, aggression, crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations. We will continue to work hard to overcome impunity for international crimes, and the International Criminal Court will help us bring to justice high-ranking Russian officials and leaders of illegally formed armed formations created in the east of the country," the Prosecutor General added.

Venediktova believes that the completion of the Rome Statute ratification process as one of conditions of the Association Agreement with the European Union will allow moving to the appropriate level of cooperation with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor.

As reported, in March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case over downing of Flight MH17.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over occupied area of Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the JIT 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"; 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.

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