UN aviation council rules Russia responsible for shooting down MH17 flight

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO Council) has concluded that Russia is responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in July 2014 and thus violated the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

This decision was reported by the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, which, together with Australia, initiated a dispute against Russia at ICAO.

The ICAO Council has decided on a dispute initiated by the Netherlands and Australia in March 2022 against the Russian Federation over the downing of flight MH17 on July 17, 2014.

The decision was made on Monday, May 12, by a vote of the ICAO Council members, and a “significant majority” of the Council members supported the position of the Netherlands and Australia, the statement said.

The next step is to determine the form of compensation from Russia. First, the ICAO should oblige Russia to start negotiations with the Netherlands and Australia and facilitate this process.

“The latter is important to ensure that the negotiations are conducted in good faith and in accordance with a specific timetable and produce real results,” the Dutch Foreign Ministry explains.

As for Moscow, back in the summer of 2024, it announced its unilateral suspension of participation in the dispute at the International Civil Aviation Organization.

As reported, on November 17, 2022, the District Court of The Hague sentenced Igor Girkin, Serhiy Dubinsky, and Leonid Kharchenko to life imprisonment in absentia for their role in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Donbas and ordered their arrest.

The Hague court also recognized that Russia controlled the “DPR” group during the downing of MH17.

Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was shot down over the Donetsk region of Ukraine amid the armed conflict between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian forces.

All 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board were killed. They represented some 17 nationalities and included 196 Dutch citizens, 43 Malaysians, and 38 Australian citizens or residents.

The Netherlands established a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in August 2014 together with Australia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Ukraine.

The JIT determined that flight MH17 was shot down by a missile launched from a Buk surface-to-air missile that was transported from Russia to a farm field in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, in an area controlled by pro-Russian armed separatists.

ICAO develops and implements global aviation strategies and technical standards, and the council is its governing body.  The UN agency created a special task force on risks to civil aviation arising from conflict zones in the weeks following the crash.