Europe’s top human rights court finds Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russia in July 2014
Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgments on Wednesday against Russia in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands, including finding Moscow shot down flight MH17.
The Boeing 777 was shot down on 17 July 2014 using a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels loyal to Moscow. All 298 passengers and crew were killed. The victims came from 17 countries and included 198 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians and 10 from the UK.
Judges at the European court of human rights ruled that Russia was responsible for widespread violations of international law in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 that year and in invading Ukraine in 2022.
Reading the decisions in a packed courtroom in Strasbourg, the court’s president, Mattias Guyomar, said Russian forces engaged in “manifestly unlawful” conduct in the July 2014 attack on the flight.
