Commemoration of MH17 air disaster victims at the National Monument in Vijfhuizen Park near Schiphol, The Netherlands, 17 July 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN
Europe’s top human rights court has found Russia responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, which killed 298 people in July 2014, the AP reported on Wednesday.
In a unanimous ruling published Wednesday, judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg found that a missile had been “intentionally fired” at Flight MH17, either by the Russian military or by a Russian-supported proxy group, most likely in the “mistaken belief” of its status as a military aircraft, but with the full intention to kill “all those on board”.
While the court did not definitively conclude who exactly fired the missile, it unanimously ruled that it was “not necessary” to do so, as by seeking to take control over territory in eastern Ukraine, the Russian state became responsible for “military attacks” committed in those areas from 2014 to 2022.
“The attack [was] an indiscriminate attack prohibited under international humanitarian law and thus did not constitute a lawful act of war”, the ruling read.
It is the first time an international court has found Russia responsible for the MH17 crash.
Previously, in 2022, a court in the Netherlands, where two-thirds of the victims were from, ruled that the flight had been shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile, and that several Russian mercenaries were guilty of murdering its passengers. In May, the UN’s top aviation agency also ruled that Russia was at fault for the disaster.
In a separate ruling published Wednesday, the court also found that Moscow was to blame for a wide range of human rights violations committed during the war in Ukraine, the AP reported.
However, it is unlikely that Russia will comply with the human rights court’s rulings, as Moscow has not been obliged to do so since it withdrew its recognition of the ECHR’s authority in June 2022