Putin reportedly approved handing over to separatists missile that downed flight MH17 in Ukraine

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2 years ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly decided to give pro-Russian separatists the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014, but there is no evidence to prosecute him or others, international investigators reported Wednesday.

The international joint investigation team (JIT) said there are “strong indications” that Putin approved sending the missile to pro-Russian separatists during the fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

But the investigation was suspended because “all leads were exhausted” on those responsible for the downing, which killed all 298 people on board the plane, AFP reported.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which was en route between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on July 17, 2014 by a Soviet-made BUK missile as it flew over the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which was already largely controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

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The JIT’s announcement comes less than three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian for the deaths of those on flight MH17, after they were tried in absentia.

“There are strong indications that the Russian president decided to hand over the Buk TELAR to the DPR separatists,” the JIT said in a statement, alluding to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.

According to investigators, Russian officials even postponed the decision to send weapons to Ukrainian separatists because, in June 2014, Putin was in France for the commemoration of the Normandy Landings.

During their press conference in The Hague on Wednesday, they released the intercepted phone call of an advisor who claimed that the delay was due to the fact that “there is only one who decides […], the one who is currently at a summit in France”.

But since Putin has immunity as head of state, it is impossible to prosecute him, the investigators stated.

“No matter how much we talk about strong indications, the bar of having complete and conclusive proof” about his role in the crash is not reached, they added.

“Clues exhausted”

Investigators had earlier stated that the BUK missile system was transferred from a Russian military base in Kursk and that they were trying to find out who was part of the crew and who was in the chain of command.

But “the investigation reached its limit, all leads were exhausted, so the investigation was suspended,” Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer told a press conference Wednesday. “The evidence is insufficient for further prosecutions,” she added.

In November, a Dutch court sentenced in absentia Russians Igor Guirkin and Sergei Dubinski and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko to life imprisonment for their role in the downing of the plane.

Moscow denied any involvement and called the verdict “outrageous”.

The JIT is composed of members from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, which were the countries most affected by the incident.

The judges in the Netherlands trial stated, in communicating the ruling in November, that the missile came from Russia and that the suspects were part of a Moscow-controlled separatist group. But they only helped transfer the missile system to Ukraine and did not fire it.