MARCH 10 — On March 9, 2020 the Netherlands put four people on trial over the downing of flight MH17 in 2014. Although many media draw attention to the names of people accused, it is still important to understand that no party is called responsible for the murder of 298 persons.

In 2015 Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine used the United Nations Security Council to propose setting up an international tribunal to prosecute this case. Russia vetoed this resolution although the majority of states was in favour (with China, Angola and Venezuela abstained). Thus, the criminal investigation is conducted by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the criminal case is conducted in the Netherlands under Dutch law.

The experience of Pan Am Flight 103 will be also taken into account in order to bring the accused people to justice. The UN’s consent for the establishment of such ad-hoc tribunals is not required, the only thing needed is the agreement between affected states. If it works, new sanctions may be put on Russia until it takes all the responsibility.

The Bellingcat Investigation Team as well as the Dutch-led joint investigation team already proved that a surface-to-air missile had been launched from the pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. This missile was a Buk 332 of the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade based in Kursk, Russia, which had been transported to separatists and was controlled by separatists in Ukraine on the day of the attack.

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While the governments of the Netherlands and Australia hold Russia responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation, Moscow is still trying to avoid being called a party to the conflict.

Russia is slowly changing its position that only some persons (not countries or military units) may be responsible for the downing of the plane with civilians. The Kremlin continues to deny any control over pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and thus it denies any participation in the missile launch. However, it should be noted that Moscow also denied any use of forces during the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. Just a month after that, President Putin admitted the use of Russian military forces in Crimea.

Before the MH17 plane was shot down, three Ukrainian planes had been already downed by pro-Russian separatists. Russian media reported that separatists had taken control over Ukrainian “Buk” missile systems but that wasn’t confirmed by Ukrainian government. It was a special operation to explain how separatists could shoot at Ukrainian planes without the necessary weapons. On July 17, 2014 (the date when MH17 was shot down), Russia officially closed the airspace in the region. The specified height was 16km which was the operating ceiling for the “Buk” system.

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It is very important to put to justice not only the executors, but also the people who organised the murder of people. Transporting the expensive missile system from Russia was undoubtedly sanctioned by the top Russian officials because that system was in Russian service and it couldn’t be just stolen. Even more, it was transported from Russia by crossing the state border and after the downing of the plane, the system was transported back to Russia by crossing the border again. Meaningless to say that Putin tightly controls his armed forces and it could be done only after his personal approval. Potential culprits include the commander of the anti-aircraft missile system of the western military district colonel Alexei Zodotov, the head of the air defense and aviation forces Andrei Kokhanov, the commander of the air defence forces Alexander Leonov, the commander of the troops of the Western military district Anatoly Sidorov, the commander-in-chief of the ground forces of Russia Oleg Salyukov, finally, the minister of defence of Russia Sergey Shoigu.

If Russia takes all the responsibility for the downing of MH17, it would automatically assume responsibility for waging war against Ukraine in Donbas. That’s why Moscow is making all efforts possible to avoid it happening. Besides global Russian propaganda, Russia is fighting against virulent critics. For example, Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, a Dutch MP who is active in criticising Russia for MH17 case, had been blacklisted by Russian authorities from entering the country. The Kremlin has also some supporters in Malaysia who are enough authoritative to undermine the investigation, namely the former transport minister Anthony Loke and the former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who “are not sure that Russia is responsible for the downing of MH17”.

On January 8, 2020, Iran shot down a Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. Tehran took several days to take all the responsibility. It allowed not only to investigate the circumstances of the catastrophe, but also to save Iran’s face. It’s been almost six years Russia doesn’t assume its responsibility for the downing of MH17.

* Maksym Skrypchenko is co-founder of Ukrainian Transatlantic Platform, Deputy Director of Security Initiatives Center

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.