Is it true that there was no international investigation and that Russia was not involved?

The Russian embassy in the Netherlands has again rejected the conclusions of the international investigation, ten years after the crash of flight MH17. And this takes on particular resonance in the context of the war in Ukraine.

The statement sparked a reaction in the Netherlands, ten years after the crash of flight MH17 that killed 298 people on July 17, 2014. The Russian embassy in the Netherlands issued a statement (in English) on Wednesday, July 17, ending with these words: “We state that the Russian Federation was not involved (…). Any claim to the contrary is false.” The embassy said it regrets that the “politicization” of the case prevented a truly independent international investigation from being conducted.

2/3 The high degree of politicization of the MH17 case has not allowed to conduct full, thorough and independent international investigations.

— Russian Embassy in NL🇷🇺🇳🇱 (@rusembassynl) July 17, 2024

Several observers have denounced on social networks a new example of an attempt at Russian disinformation, which has a particular echo in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Contrary to what the Russian embassy in the Netherlands claims, an international investigation did take place – but Russia refuses to acknowledge its conclusions, which it considers too political.

On July 17, 2014, flight MH17 took off from the Netherlands for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was to fly over Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists were claiming to have created the Donetsk People’s Republic earlier that year – not recognized by the European Union. Russia had annexed Crimea a few months earlier. The plane crashed in the Donetsk region, killing its entire crew and passengers, the vast majority of whom were Dutch.

An international investigation was then opened and it concluded that the plane had been shot down by a Russian missile, fired by pro-Russian separatists. Three were sentenced to life in prison in the Netherlands but are not serving their sentences because Russia has always refused to extradite them, rejecting the verdict of the Dutch court, which was judged “scandalous” and politically motivated.

The investigation also concluded that “strong indications” of direct involvement from Moscow. “There are strong indications that a decision has been taken at the presidential level, by President Vladimir Putin, to supply the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ with the Buk TELAR missile system” used, Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said at a press conference in The Hague in February 2023. However, the prosecutor believed that “the threshold of complete and conclusive evidence [n’était] not reached”. In the impasse, the investigations were suspended. Since then, the European Union, the Netherlands and Australia have held Russia responsible and called on it to acknowledge its involvement.

Ten years have passed since the crash of flight MH17, but the position taken by the Russian embassy in the Netherlands shows that Russia’s disinformation rhetoric has not changed. It has even found a new echo since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

In 2014, Russia found itself isolated on the international stage after the annexation of Crimea. During the crash, when all eyes were on it, it accused Ukraine of being the author of the launch of the incriminated missile and to put the blame on it. Today, Russia is still doing the same thing.

In January 2023, the Kremlin spokesman accused Ukrainian air defense of causing the collapse of a building in Dnipro, killing dozens of people, while the fault was attributed to a Russian airstrike. Bis repetita a few days ago. On July 8, Moscow accused Kiev of bombing the Okhmatdyt hospital, a children’s hospital, while, according to the UN, after analyzing the video footage, it is “very likely” that it is rather a “direct fire” Russian missile.