On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft (Flight MH17) traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over the part of the Donetsk oblast controlled by pro-russian armed formations.
Immediately after the disaster, social media accounts and separatist online resources published claims that they had allegedly shot down a Ukrainian An-26 military transport aircraft. In particular, posts attributed to Igor Girkin (Strelkov) referred to a "downed transport plane". After it became clear that the aircraft was a passenger airliner carrying 298 people, including 80 children, all of whom were killed, those publications were deleted.
Pro-russian forces and russian officials denied any involvement. They put forward a series of mutually contradictory explanations, claiming that the aircraft had been shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet, a Ukrainian Buk air defense system, or that the crash had been a pre-planned provocation. Many of these claims were later disproved by the official investigation and independent investigators.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) concluded that the aircraft was struck by a missile fired from a Buk missile system launched from territory controlled by pro-russian forces. The investigation determined that the Buk launcher had been brought from russia (from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the russian armed forces) and returned to russian territory after the launch. These conclusions were supported by satellite imagery, photographs and videos tracing the launcher's route, intercepted phone calls, witness testimony, and analysis of missile fragments.
On November 17, 2022, the District Court of The Hague found former so-called "DNR Defense Minister" Igor Girkin (Strelkov), Sergei Dubinsky, and Leonid Kharchenko guilty of involvement in the destruction of Flight MH17. They were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families. Oleg Pulatov was acquitted due to insufficient evidence of his personal involvement.
The tragedy became one of the deadliest aviation disasters of the 21st century and one of the most thoroughly documented and investigated episodes of russian aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2014.
