RUSSIA shot down the MH17 passenger plane, killing 298 people including 10 Brits, the UN has ruled.
The decision debunks years of denials and accusations from Russia over the 2014 atrocity, which it has never admitted to, and confirms Putin broke international law.
Local workers move the nose of the plane from the crash site[/caption]
The plane was shot down shortly after take-off in Amsterdam[/caption]
Otis, 8, Evie, 10, and Mo Maslin, 12, were on their way home to Perth, Australia, when they died in the atrocity[/caption]
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew on board the Boeing 777 were killed when it was blown from the sky at a height of 33,000ft, landing near the village of Hrabove in the Donetsk region.
Among the victims were 196 Dutch citizens, 38 Australians, 10 Britons, as well as Belgians and Malaysians.
Investigations determined that the plane was hit by a Buk missile system – a Russian-made surface-to-air weapon.
Now, in the most conclusive verdict yet, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ruled on Monday that Russia shot it down.
The ICAO council agreed with conclusions made by Australia and the Netherlands that Russia was to blame, saying they were “well founded in fact and in law“.
It found that Russia broke international law with “the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17″.
Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said: “The decision is an important step towards establishing the truth and achieving justice and accountability for all victims of Flight MH17, and their families and loved ones.
“This decision also sends a clear message to the international community: states cannot violate international law with impunity.”
He added that the two nations now want the council to order Russia into negotiations and reparations.
The body said it would consider what reparations would be appropriate in the face of continued denials from Russia.
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong similarly demanded Russia “finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct”.
In 2022, a Dutch court convicted two Russian men and a Ukrainian of murder their alleged role in the crash.
The two are Russian nationals Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and the Ukrainian is called Leonid Kharchenko.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew died when the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine[/caption]
The reconstructed wreckage of MH17[/caption]
A damaged missile is displayed during a news conference by members of the Joint Investigation Team[/caption]
They were sentenced to life in prison, and ordered to pay more than €16m, but Moscow slammed the ruling as “scandalous” and refused to turn over its citizens.
The Boeing 777-200ER took off as usual on July 17, 2014, from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport at 12.31pm and was due to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10am Malaysian time.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane two hours and 49 minutes after take-off when it was about 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Smouldering debris and personal belongings were found scattered over a large area in territory controlled by pro-Russia rebels.
As families of those on board received the awful news, unarmed AFP officers were deployed into an active conflict zone patrolled by Russia-backed separatists.
Global investigators ruled it was likely Putin signed off on the attack[/caption]
Kids’ toys and other belongings were scattered around the huge crash site[/caption]
The officers’ mission involved recovering the remains of the MH17 victims.
They were met with a horrifying scene: bodies, personal possessions, and children’s toys sprawled beside flaming debris, as far as the eye could see.
The AFP Commander, Brian McDonald, recalled the grim task last year, ten years on.
He said: “The crash site was huge. We knew we were going to have very limited time on the crash site. That became obvious early.
“So everything just became extremely difficult and sensitive and required a lot of diplomatic communications just to allow us to move.
A pro-Russian rebel touches the MH17 wreckage[/caption]
The UN has ruled that Russia was responsible for the attack[/caption]
“There was fuselage, and I remember there’s luggage, there’s children’s toys just strewn for probably more than a kilometre.
“I saw belongings everywhere I saw bone fragments and body pieces across the whole crime scene and it just made me realise what the last moments would have been like.”
The Dutch government spent more than £158m in the aftermath of the downing – repatriating the victims’ bodies and prosecuting those responsible.
In 2023, a team of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine, Malaysia and Belgium said there were “strong indications” that Russian president Vladimir Putin signed off on the shooting.