MH17 10 years on: Russia’s lies ‘murdered’ victims twice, Ukraine foreign minister says

“I regret to say this but Russia has murdered the innocent MH17 victims twice. First, with their missile. Second, with their lies,” Kuleba said in a written interview.

The reconstructed site was opened for a small group of journalists, including This Week In Asia, on the eve of the MH17 anniversary.

The 298 victims were from 17 different countries, with Dutch nationals making up the majority at 198 killed. There were also 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians and 10 Britons on board.

Kuleba said: “It’s therefore difficult for me to comprehend what kind of pain their relatives have gone through during these summer days 10 years ago and in these 10 years … since the very beginning, Russian aggression against Ukraine is not only against Ukraine and Ukrainians, this is a global threat.”

Silene Fredriksz, a Dutch national who lost her 23-year-old son Bryce and his 21-year-old girlfriend Daisy Oehlers on the flight, told reporters that Russia has “never even said sorry” and that she did not expect the country “to ever apologise”.

More than 26,000 tweets were observed immediately after MH17 was shot down, blaming Ukraine for the downing and denying Russia’s role in the tragedy, according to investigators.

The tweets were traced to a “troll factory” in St Petersburg,” Digna van Boetzelaer, a former Dutch deputy public prosecutor and current coordinator of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on MH17, told a group of Malaysian journalists including This Week in Asia on Monday.

The “disinformation” was likely aimed at confusing the public over what had happened, van Boetzelaer said.

On Ukraine’s part, Kuleba said the country has made extensive efforts to fully cooperate with the official investigation from the very beginning in the pursuit of justice.

Russia “has been lying” about the tragedy for years and manipulating public opinion, trying to dodge accountability, Kuleba added.

In November 2022, a Dutch court found two Russians – Igor Girkin, a former colonel of Russia’s Federal Security Service, and Sergey Dubinskiy, who worked for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency – as well as Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, guilty of mass murder for their roles in the MH17 tragedy

The three were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay the victims’ families more than €16 million (US$17.4 million). None of the perpetrators was present in court to receive their sentences then and they are unlikely to serve time for their crimes.

“The life sentences for the perpetrators of this crime are proof that Russia will not be able to avoid responsibility. Sooner or later, those who made the initial decisions in this tragedy must also be brought to justice,” Kuleba said.

“I insist that not only those who executed the missile’s launch but the entire chain of command must be brought to justice.

“Justice has been served, at least partially, by the Dutch court that established the truth and identified those responsible. But I think that even this has not soothed the relatives’ pain completely,” Kuleba added.

Family members, King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof will attend a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the downing of MH17 on Wednesday at the MH17 National Monument.

In 2014, Hishammuddin was the transport minister who oversaw investigations into the tragedy.

“MH17 is also personal for me. I am a next-of-kin,” the current Member of Parliament from the Umno party told This Week In Asia in a phone interview in Kuala Lumpur.

While expressing his appreciation for the Dutch-led investigations and trial, Hishammuddin said there were still questions that needed to be answered to give him and his family closure.

“This incident just doesn’t make any sense until we actually find out…at least get the reason for why so many innocent people flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur [had] to die and the plane to be brought down in this manner,” Hishammuddin said.

“What’s the point of a paper, a judgement which you cannot enforce…. who allowed these people to have access to a missile of this nature, to be able to press the button, those are the questions that I have,” said Hishammuddin, adding that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza could be explained but not the downing of MH17.

According to van Boetzelaer, investigators had intercepted a call where the Russians had initially celebrated a successful ‘hit’, only to express shock upon realising they had shot down a civilian aircraft.

On the convicted trio, Girkin, Dubinskiy and Kharchenko remained at large and were believed to be either in Russia or Russian-held territories in Ukraine, Dutch officials said.

“We cannot request Russia to extradite them, but if they travel outside Russia, they can be immediately apprehended,” van Boetzelaer said, adding that Interpol has been notified to detain the trio if they were outside Russia.

Van Boetzelaer said she was optimistic that should a “regime change” happen in Russia, there might be possibilities for negotiations.

Her comments come several months after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin won his fifth term after the country’s election in March, extending his quarter-century rule and keeping him in power until at least 2030.

“We are patient and will continue our pursuit of justice. I don’t know if regime change is enough but I always think maybe there will be a moment in time when things will change and what’s important is that we are in no hurry as investigators, and we will be here waiting,” van Boetzelaer said.

“We are an institute, we have patience. That is our power. What I’m sure of this won’t be forgotten, it will always be in our DNA.”