July 17 marks 12 years since the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down by the russian military over the occupied part of the Donetsk Region. All 298 people on board were killed — citizens of 17 countries, including 80 children. The investigation proved that the plane was hit by a missile from the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which was delivered to the Donbas from russian territory and returned back across the border after launch.
The tragedy was a turning point in the perception of russian aggression: the war, which the Kremlin tried to present as an "internal conflict in Ukraine", claimed the lives of hundreds of foreign citizens and attracted the attention of the whole world.
What was the situation in Donbas before the MH17 disaster
By July 2014, hostilities in Donbas had been going on for several months. Russia had annexed Crimea, and armed groups supported by Moscow were operating in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine gradually restricted civil aviation flights over the combat zone. Initially, the airspace was closed to an altitude of 7,900 meters, later to 9,750 meters, and three days before the tragedy, the minimum flight altitude was raised to almost 10.5 kilometers. It was at this level, about 10.1 kilometers, that the Boeing 777 of flight MH17 was flying.
At that time, russian forces and militants under their control had already shot down several Ukrainian planes and helicopters. In particular, a month before the tragedy near Luhansk, a military transport Il-76 was hit by a portable anti-aircraft missile system, killing 49 Ukrainian servicemen.
What happened on July 17, 2014
The Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines was operating flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. At 04:20 pm Kyiv time, the plane was hit by a Buk missile over territory controlled by russian-backed militants.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed. Among the victims were entire families, scientists, public figures, and 80 children, three of whom were infants.
The militants themselves were the first to report the downing of the plane. They said they had destroyed a Ukrainian military transport plane near Torez. Later, photos of the crash site with passengers' personal belongings, children's toys, and wreckage of the plane appeared on the Internet. Only after that did it become clear that the missile had hit a civilian passenger plane.
On the same day, the Security Service of Ukraine published intercepted conversations of the militants, in which they discussed the downing of the plane.
How the world reacted to the tragedy
After the crash, a number of international airlines stopped flights over eastern Ukraine, and the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation closed Ukrainian airspace to civil aviation.
Then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initiated an international investigation with the participation of specialists from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other international structures.
The MH17 crash became one of the most resonant events of the war. It has definitively demonstrated that the hostilities, which russia has called a "civil conflict", pose a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to the entire world.
How an international investigation established russia's involvement
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) established that the plane was shot down by a Buk missile belonging to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the russian armed forces, stationed in Kursk.
According to investigators, the system was delivered to the occupied territory of Donbas across the russian border, transported along the Donetsk-Snizhne route, after which it launched a missile. The very next day, the system was returned to russia.
The investigation also rejected all alternative versions spread by Moscow, in particular about an alleged Ukrainian attack aircraft, an explosion inside the plane, or a technical malfunction.
Who was responsible for the downing of flight MH17?
In November 2022, the Hague District Court found russians Igor Girkin (Strelkov), Sergey Dubinsky, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko guilty of the downing of flight MH17. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. Another defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted due to insufficient evidence of his personal involvement.
Russia has refused to recognize the results of an international investigation, denied its involvement in the disaster, and has not extradited the convicted.
Twelve years after the MH17 tragedy, it remains one of russia's best-documented crimes during the war against Ukraine.
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