‘Strong indications’ Putin responsible for 2014 Malaysia Airlines disaster

Investigators said during a press conference in The Hague on Wednesday that it was possible to use phone taps to prove that Putin was personally involved in the decision to supply anti-aircraft weapons to separatists from the Donetsk People’s Republic. They said, however, that they could not confirm that the rocket launcher used to bring down the plane was in that arsenal of weapons.

dutch government Russia has been blamed for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed all 298 people on board the Boeing 777 in 2014. In November, two Russians and a Ukrainian national were found guilty by a Dutch court of carrying out the deadly attack. in 2014.

A Kremlin spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Russia dismissed the findings of the November verdict as ‘reprehensible’.

Judges in The Hague ruled that Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, carried out the missile attack. Most of those killed on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch citizens.

Nevertheless, investigators on Wednesday decided to suspend the probe after concluding there was not enough evidence for new charges. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a statement on Twitter that the Netherlands would continue to call out the Russian Federation for its role with the downing of the flight.

“The Dutch state remains committed as ever to the international proceedings launched to establish the truth and achieve justice and accountability,” Rutte said.

malaysia airlines flight-17 disaster 2014

MH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK missile system as it flew over eastern Ukraine from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, including 196 Dutch nationals.

At the time the plane was shot down, with debris and victims’ remains scattered over corn and sunflower fields, Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.