ICAO recognized Russia as responsible for the crash of flight MH17 over Ukraine

ICAO Council officially holds Russia responsible for the MH17 flight tragedy

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has made a historic decision, officially recognizing the Russian Federation as responsible for the Malaysian Boeing crash over Ukraine in 2014, reports the government of the Netherlands.

According to the statement, Russia's actions were qualified as a violation of the fundamental provision of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, which categorically prohibits the use of weapons against civilian aircraft in flight.

In the near future, the ICAO Council plans to consider mechanisms for compensation of damages by Russia.

The complaint to the international aviation organization was filed in March 2022 by Australia and the Netherlands — countries that lost the largest number of citizens in this tragedy. Notably, in June 2024, the Russian side announced the termination of its participation in the consideration of the complaint, refusing to recognize ICAO's jurisdiction in this matter.

The Joint Investigation Team, which combined the efforts of representatives from five countries — Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, established that the aircraft was hit by a missile from a "Buk" surface-to-air missile system, delivered from Russian territory and used by pro-Russian separatists. A Dutch court in November 2022 issued a severe sentence — life imprisonment — to former "Defense Minister" of the self-proclaimed DPR Igor Strelkov and two other defendants for the deliberate destruction of the aircraft and intentional murder. One of the defendants was acquitted.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. The disaster claimed the lives of all 298 people on board, entering the sad list of the ten largest aviation tragedies in history in terms of the number of victims.