Kyiv [Ukraine], July 18: The Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, known by its flight number MH17, over eastern Ukraine by attributing the disaster in which 298 people died to Russian terrorism.
"The downing of Flight MH17 was a horrific act of Russian terror among many those committed during a decade of Russian aggression against Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry in Kiev said.
"This crime has demonstrated to the international community that Russia's violation of international law and the threat to the international legal order by the aggressor go far beyond Ukraine." Russia had persistently denied responsibility ever since, and had launched a systematic disinformation campaign to avoid responsibility, the Foreign Ministry said. "That is why bringing Russia and Russian criminals to responsibility is so important," it said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X: "It's been 10 years since Russian murderers shot down the MH17 passenger plane in the skies over Ukraine. The whole world witnessed then who came to wage war against Ukraine and that Russian evil is a threat not only to us but to all." Russia has denied all responsibility and rejected the outcome of an international inquiry saying that it had been excluded from the investigation.
"Evidence from the Russian side was not taken into account. We did not participate in the investigations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated on Wednesday. Moscow has circulated its own contradictory versions of the events and sought to undermine the investigations conducted under Dutch auspices.
The day was being marked in the Netherlands as well. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with many Dutch citizens aboard when it was shot down over Ukraine's Donetsk region.
A Dutch court ruled in 2022 that a Russian anti-aircraft missile had struck the plane. It sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life terms in absentia.
Source: Qatar Tribune