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International prosecutors decided on Wednesday that there are “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved the use of the missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
As they released their findings, members of the global Joint Inquiry Team declared they would be concluding the investigation, stating that the proof of Putin’s and other Russian leaders’ involvement was insufficient for a criminal conviction.
At a news conference in The Hague, prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer stated, “The investigation has reached its conclusion.” “The evidence is insufficient to prosecute additional suspects.”
Russia has denied any participation in the downing of the commercial airplane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which resulted in the deaths of 298 passengers and crew from more than a dozen nations, including roughly 200 Dutch nationals.
In November 2022, a Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian rebel leader of murder for assisting in the procurement and positioning of the Russian BUK missile system that was used to shoot down the jet from a military post. The court has acquitted one Russian.
Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, three convicted defendants, were tried in absentia and remain at large.
The absence of evidence led to the acquittal of Oleg Pulatov, the sole defendant defended by defense attorneys at trial.
At the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court of abandoning “objectivity and impartiality” and capitulating to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors, and the media.
Girkin, a 51-year-old ex-colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service or FSB, was the most senior defendant in the trial. At the time of the crash, he was defense minister and leader of the Donetsk region’s armed forces; he is now active in the Ukraine conflict.
In 2014, Dubinskiy, age 60, was a former officer of the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, and one of Girkin’s subordinates. Similarly to Girkin, he maintained regular touch with Russian officials in 2014 and was also the intelligence chief for the separatist Donetsk province.
Kharchenko was identified as the commander of a pro-Russian rebel fighting force who received direct commands from Dubinskiy.
Pulatov, 56, was a former officer of the GRU’s special units and Dubinskiy’s subordinate at the time MH17 was shot down.
At the time the airliner was shot down, Ukrainian soldiers were fighting separatists backed by Russia in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Despite annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, Russia denied military involvement in the Donetsk conflict at the time.
In November, however, as part of the conviction of the three men, the Dutch court determined that, as of May 2014, Russia had “overall control” of rebel troops in Donetsk.
Prosecutors stated on Wednesday that they were unable to identify the precise Kursk-based 53rd brigade soldiers responsible for launching the missile system that brought down the jet.
They highlighted a 2014 phone intercept between Russian officials as proof that Putin’s consent was required before the separatists’ request for equipment could be approved.
In addition, they aired a 2017 conversation between Putin and the Russian-appointed head administrator of the Ukrainian province of Luhansk in which they discussed the military situation and a prisoner swap.
The head of the organization representing the victims of MH17, Piet Ploeg, was sorry that the probe had concluded, but he was relieved that prosecutors had presented their proof of Putin’s participation.
Putin cannot be indicted, according to his statement. “It is evident that we wanted to know who was ultimately responsible.”
Onboard MH17, Ploeg’s brother, his brother’s wife, and his nephew perished.
»Investigators say Putin supplied Buk missile that downed MH17 over Ukraine«
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