Russia Adjudged Responsible for MH17 Downing

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has said Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in 2014 that killed all 298 passengers and crew. This represents the first time in ICAO’s history that its Council has determined on the merits of a dispute between Member States under the Organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism.

Malaysia MH17 was carrying 38 Australian citizens and 196 Dutch citizens at the time, prompting the governments of Australia and the Netherlands to urge Russia to accept responsibility for the incident and provide compensation. Nevertheless, Russia has continually denied any involvement in the incident.

The Council agreed that the claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands as a result of the shooting down of Flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 were well-founded in fact and law. The case centered on allegations that the conduct of the Russian Federation in the downing of the aircraft by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine constitutes a breach of Article 3 bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which requires that States "refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight."

Moscow rejected the aviation body’s findings on Tuesday. "Russia was not a country that participated in the investigation of this incident. Therefore, we do not accept all these biased conclusions,” the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. While ICAO has no regulatory powers, it holds moral suasion and sets global aviation standards adopted by its 193-member states.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a statement that the ICAO’s ruling in the case launched in 2022 was an “important step towards establishing the truth and achieving justice. This decision also sends a clear message to the international community: States cannot violate international law with impunity,” he said.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her government welcomed the decision and urged ICAO to swiftly determine reparations. “We call upon Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct, as required under international law,” Wong said in a statement.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, expressed approval of the ruling and stated, “The decision was another step towards restoring justice for this crime. No matter how much money and effort Russia put into lying to conceal its crimes, the truth wins out, and justice prevails,” Sybiha wrote on X.

On July 17, 2014, the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was hit by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where pro-Russian separatists were fighting Ukrainian forces. At the time, separatists in the area claimed the airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian military jet, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing Ukraine of bearing “responsibility” for the deaths of the passengers.

In 2022, a Dutch court convicted two Russian men and a Ukrainian man, in absentia, of murder for their role in the attack. Moscow has refused to extradite its citizens, calling the ruling "scandalous."