Malaysia Airlines flight Jan.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17)
The crashed machine 9M-MRD in August 2010
Accident summary
Type of accident	Launch by anti-aircraft missile
place	48 ° 8 '18'  N , 38 ° 38 '20 "  O coordinates: 48 ° 8' 18 '  N , 38 ° 38' 20"  O Hrabove, closegate,oblast Donetsk,Ukraine
date	17th July 2014
Fatalities	298
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 777-200ER
operator	Malaysia Airlines
Mark	9M-BILLION
Departure airport	Amsterdam Schiphol Airport , Netherlands
Destination airport	Kuala Lumpur Airport , Malaysia
Passengers	283
crew	15th
Lists of aviation accidents

The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 ( flight number MH17 and code sharing with KLM flight KL4103 ) was an international scheduled flights of Malaysia Airlines from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur . On July 17, 2014 between 4:20 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. Ukrainian local time, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with registration number 9M-MRD crashed on this route . All 298 inmates, including 80 children and 15 crew members , were killed. The rubble fell near the city of Tores in eastern Ukraine , spread over an area of ​​35 square kilometers.

According to the findings of the technical inspection, the aircraft was one of Russia originating air missile of the type Buk M1 shot . Rubble from the mobile guided missile was identified at the launch site by the Russian manufacturer Almas-Antei on June 2, 2015. Both the salvage work and the investigation were hampered by the hostilities in eastern Ukraine , during which the missile was fired.

According to the international criminal investigation, the Buk missile came from the 53rd Air Defense Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk . From there, the guided missile was transported to the Ukraine to a field controlled by pro-Russian rebels near Pervomajskyj , where it was fired, and the rocket launcher was brought back to Russia on the same day. The missile launcher was transported and returned in a convoy of vehicles belonging to the Russian armed forces. The investigation team identified about 100 people who were involved in the transport of the rocket carrier and its launch.

The countries of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) agreed to seek a UN tribunal. Eleven countries in the UN Security Council voted for a UN tribunal on July 29, 2015; Russia vetoed it. After Russia blocked the establishment of a special tribunal, the alleged perpetrators are to be brought to justice in the Netherlands.

The incident is one of the ten worst aviation disasters in terms of the number of victims . It is also the most casualty crash in Ukraine as well as the Boeing 777 aircraft. For Malaysia Airlines - after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in March 2014 - it was the second total loss within a few months.

plane

The Boeing 777-200ER with the air vehicle registration number 9M-MRD and the serial number 28411 was the 84th produced Boeing 777 . After its maiden flight on July 17, 1997, it was delivered to Malaysia Airlines on July 29, 1997. The machine had been in service for 17 years before it crashed. It was equipped with two Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines and 282 seats for passengers. The last general overhaul ( D-Check ) took place in 2013; the aircraft went back into service on November 16. According to Malaysia Airlines, the last inspection took place on July 11, 2014 at Kuala Lumpur Airport , while the Dutch Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (OVV ) named April 16 as the time of the last small inspection ( A-check ). The next maintenance was scheduled for August 27, 2014. According to the operator, the aircraft was in perfect condition; the outward flight to Amsterdam went without any technical problems. In total, the machine had completed 75,322 flight hours on 11,434 flights. The investigation also found no irregularities in the processes while the aircraft was standing in Amsterdam.

Passengers and crew

nationality	number
Netherlands	192
Malaysia	43
Australia	27
Indonesia	12th
United Kingdom	9
Belgium	4th
Germany	4th
Philippines	3
Canada	1
New Zealand	1
United Kingdom + South Africa	1
Netherlands + United States	1

On board were 298 people: 283 passengers and 15 Malaysian crew members. The four pilots of the long-haul crew were 50-year-old Wan Amran Bin Wan Hussin and 45-year-old Eugene Choo Jin Leong ( captains ) as well as 29-year-old Ahmad Hakimi Bin Hanapi and 27-year-old Muhamad Firdaus Bin Abdul Rahim ( co-pilots ).

Six of the passengers, including AIDS researcher Joep Lange and his partner and colleague Jacqueline van Tongeren, were on their way to the 20th  World AIDS Conference in Melbourne . The Dutch Social Democratic MP Willem Witteveen , his wife and daughter were also on the plane . Also among the victims were the Australian writer Liam Davison and the Malaysian theater and film actress Shuba Jaya , who died with her husband Paul Goes and their child.

Flight history

History of Malaysia Airlines flight 17

Flight history of MH17 and SQ351 at 12: 55-13: 27 UTC with no-air zones

The aircraft took off at 10:31 a.m. UTC (12:31 p.m. local time) on runway 36C at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and crossed Germany and Poland before reaching Ukrainian airspace. The flight route was approved by Eurocontrol and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Western Ukraine flew over MH17 at an altitude of 33,000  feet (approximately 10.06 km). At 12:53 p.m. UTC, the air traffic controllers asked whether MH17 could climb to the height of 35,000 feet provided in the flight plan, also to make room for a machine approaching 33,000 feet from the northwest - Singapore Airlines flight SQ351. The pilots refused, however, causing the SQ351 to climb to 35,000 feet.

There were several thunderstorms in the vicinity of the MH17 flight route . At around 1 p.m., air traffic control approved a weather-related deviation from the planned route in a northerly direction, while declining a requested ascent to 34,000 feet. The aircraft turned slightly to the left and reached the airspace around Donetsk , which was blocked up to an altitude of 32,000 feet (approx. 9.75 km). At 1:20 p.m. it was about 7 km north of the planned route and near the town of Rossypne when radio contact with the air traffic controllers was lost. The cockpit voice recorder and flight recorder stopped at 13:20:03 UTC at an altitude of 33,000 feet and cruising speed. The machine did not make an emergency call; the data and sound recordings up to the failure of the systems showed no irregularities. Only the microphone recording in the cockpit shows two noise excursions in the last 20 milliseconds before the end of the recording. Radar records released by the Russian military show a sudden loss of speed of the machine shortly after 1:20 p.m. UTC; it was now rotating in a northeasterly direction and disappeared 90 seconds later from the radar screen at a ground speed of 200 km / h . The radar device detected objects above 5 km altitude.

The main remains, i.e. the rear and middle parts of the aircraft, covered the greatest distance after the rocket hit and were found near the village of Hrabowe , the "main crash site " about 12 km north of Tores ( Donetsk Oblast ) and 8.5 km east-northeast of the last known flight position. The remaining debris fell more steeply to the ground and was distributed over an elongated area closer to the detonation point from Hrabowe to Rossypne, 6 kilometers to the west - there was the cockpit area , which was demolished immediately after the detonation - and further northwest to the vicinity of the 3000 inhabitants -Ortes Olchowatka .

The Russian news agency TASS reported on the evening of the same day that militiamen of the “People's Republic” had shot down a military transport machine by rocket.

Route Risks

The respective airline is responsible for the choice of the flight route . Airlines carry out their own safety analyzes of the airspaces they use and rely on internationally available information, in particular the notifications of the international aviation organizations ICAO, IATA and Eurocontrol, which in turn rely on the risk assessments of the local member states.

The MH17 route ran through a crisis area; There is an armed conflict in southeastern Ukraine . Some airlines therefore decided months before the accident to fly around this region. Such alternative routes are associated with additional costs for the airlines, while the then overflown state forego overflight fees.

On July 1, Ukraine closed the lower airspace in the east of the country: civil aircraft were only allowed to operate above 26,000 feet (approx. 7,900 m) without special permission from the Ukrainian army command .

Several days before the MH17 crash, Eurocontrol unofficially (“spoken privately”) asked the Ukrainian government to block the airspace over the Donbass for civil flights. The Eurocontrol representatives justified this with the fact that the frequencies on which the communication between the aircraft and the control center on the ground takes place were disrupted several times. According to The Sunday Times , around 20 military helicopters and transport planes have already been shot down during the fighting. Eurocontrol emphasized that without a mandate it would not be authorized to issue official recommendations to the state authorities.

When, three days before the accident, an Antonov An-26 military machine was shot down for the first time at a great height and this was possible with the familiar shoulder-mounted weapons - according to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Heletej at an altitude of 6,500 meters (approx. 21,300 feet) and from Russia off - a partial closure of the airspace in a smaller area up to an altitude of 32,000 feet (approximately 9,750 meters) has been ordered. Since the transit of international civil flights usually takes place at higher altitudes - MH 17 flew at 33,000 feet and thus about 300 m higher - the partial closure had no effects on intercontinental traffic. There were no further official warnings about flying over the affected area.

About 75 percent of the flights normally leading via eastern Ukraine continued to take place even after the partial airspace closures were set up. In the seven days leading up to the accident, around 900 scheduled flights ran over the Donetsk region; most frequently represented were Aeroflot , Singapore Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines , Lufthansa and Malaysia Airlines.

At the time of the MH17 loss of contact, two other commercial aircraft were in the vicinity , the Singapore Airlines plane about 30 km northwest and Air India flight AI113 about 60 km east. One and a half hours after the MH 17 crash, the Ukrainian government officially closed the entire airspace over the Donbass.

The choice of the MH17 flight route is being investigated by the Dutch traffic safety authority, while the ICAO is reviewing the handling of crisis regions in civil aviation.

First political reactions

The same evening, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke of a "terrorist act" by pro-Russian irregulars . He ruled out a downing of flight MH17 by the armed forces of the Ukraine . Anton Herashchenko , adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov , accused the militia of shooting down the plane with a Russian-supplied Buk anti-aircraft system . Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott also spoke of a shooting down by "Russia-backed rebels".

Alexander Borodai , then Prime Minister of the proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic , accused the Ukrainian Air Force of having shot down the machine as a "provocation". The insurgents had no defensive weapons that aircraft could reach at a height of 10,000 meters. In a statement on July 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the Ukrainian government responsible for the event insofar as it had not made sufficient efforts to achieve internal peace in its own country without, however, assuming it was involved in a shooting down. Putin had not explicitly denied that it was a Russian system. US President Barack Obama was reluctant to assign blame, but pointed to evidence of a rocket launch from an area controlled by pro-Russian militias. Much of the violence in the area was based on Russian support. Mark Rutte , Prime Minister of the Netherlands, called on Putin to intervene in a telephone conversation. He avoided assigning blame.

In a special meeting requested by Great Britain on July 18, the UN Security Council - as proposed by Great Britain - called for a thorough, independent and international investigation into the incident. In a further meeting on July 21, he condemned the alleged downing of the aircraft with resolution 2166 with the support of Russia and reiterated the call for an independent investigation in which the ICAO - a UN agency - should play a central role and according to which " all states in the conflict region should help carry out an international investigation ”.

On July 20, US Secretary of State John Kerry accused the insurgents in eastern Ukraine of being responsible for the shooting down. The US is in possession of imagery that shows a rocket launch in the area at the time it was shot down. The route of the rocket shows that it hit the aircraft.

Recovery work and inspection of the crash site

Initial irregularities

The area north of Tores is part of the Donetsk People's Republic proclaimed in April 2014 and was controlled by militia militias at the time of the crash . In the early days there were looting involving rebel fighters.

While the political leader at the time, Alexander Borodai, announced that the site of the crash would be left untouched, rebels recovered the victims of the front part of the fuselage and took them to a morgue in Donetsk . The remaining bodies were only packed in sacks after three days, collected on the roadside and transported to Tores. Ukrainian officials alleged that evidence had also been removed. The rapid recovery of the victims in the cockpit area also appeared suspicious, as, as expected, they would show the most traces. The investigation report later confirmed the suspicion and stated that attempts had been made to cover up the cause of the crash.

International deployment under OSCE mediation

The first international forces on the ground were members of the OSCE observer mission, which has been in Ukraine since April 2014 . After negotiations with the militias, the OSCE team was granted access to the site from July 18; on the first day - contrary to what had been agreed - only for 75 minutes and only for a tiny piece of 200 square meters, on the second day only a little more although they were instructed to observe the area until the investigators arrived. Units of the Ukrainian civil protection supported the further work, but were prevented by the rebels from collecting evidence and taking it with them. According to the Ukrainian government, the forces were monitored by "up to 900" militia fighters.

Dutch and Australian forces examine a part of the wreck

In order to enable a more orderly recovery and investigation, the central government, the militias, Russia and the OSCE agreed on July 19 a 20 km² safety zone around the crash site. This gave the OSCE team more freedom of movement. Ukrainian aviation accident investigators were also given access. Shortly afterwards, the OSCE observers found that large parts of the cockpit and fuselage had been removed. They also watched as uniformed men sawed up the cockpit. Reporters later discovered parts of the aircraft that had been used to build a roadblock.

Later, Dutch, Australian, Malaysian and British rescue workers, forensic experts and technicians arrived; The OSCE took on the role of mediator between the Ukrainian government, the militias and the emergency services. The Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia also sent military police and regular police units to protect their teams and to help with the rescue work. They have been allowed to carry weapons since the beginning of August - after approval by the parliament and the President of Ukraine, which was heavily criticized by the separatists - but tried to avoid this. Any additional military operation to secure the crash site was considered by all three countries and would have been covered by the Ukrainian parliamentary resolution, but was rejected because of the tense situation on the ground.

Salvage work July to September 2014

A coffin is carried to the hearse at Eindhoven Airport

The corpses collected in Tores were stored in a refrigerated train , which was temporarily not refrigerated; those initially kept in Donetsk were also added. After clearance by the militia, the first transport with around 200 bodies drove on to Kharkiv on July 21 . Subsequently, Australian investigators and OSCE observers found further victims in part of the aircraft fuselage in a wooded area. While the international forces were taking care of the eastern part of the site, the separatist militias with around 800 local helpers searched the western area.

By July 26, all corpses and body parts recovered so far were flown to Hilversum in the Netherlands for forensic investigations , in a total of 227 coffins. A 228th coffin was flown out on August 4th.

The work on site had to be interrupted several times because of the flames. On August 7th, the emergency services stopped their work entirely; At this point in time, after the Ukrainian army had gained ground, the front ran directly over the crash site. The operation was supposed to continue in September following a ceasefire agreement between the conflicting parties, but the attempt was abandoned after strangers fired warning shots several times.

Recovery work resumed October to November 2014

In mid-October, shortly before the onset of winter, Ukrainian civil protection units continued the rescue work under pressure from Malaysia and the Netherlands. They were instructed by Dutch experts and again accompanied by OSCE observers and guarded by armed militias. Fighting took place in the immediate vicinity. The victims' personal belongings were recovered and, for the first time since work was interrupted, other human remains were recovered at the end of October.

In the second week of November, the emergency services discovered more bodies. Mines and grenades - duds in the crash area hamper the work. Five coffins with human remains were flown to the Netherlands on November 8th. A week later, the recovery of the aircraft wreck began, which is to be transported to the Netherlands for investigation. Part of the wreck is to be reconstructed.

According to an agreement with the Netherlands, the rebels are supposed to dispose of the wreckage left behind. This procedure resulted from the circumstantial evidence, according to which the front fuselage and the left wing were of particular importance for the investigation.

Further finds from February 2015

In early February 2015, Dutch soldiers recovered body parts, personal items and wreckage that residents of the crash region had found. Experts hope to identify parts of the last three fatalities among the human remains. In view of the winter and fighting in the nearby small town of Debaltseve, the unarmed soldiers decided not to search for them. The last seven coffins arrived in the Netherlands at the beginning of May.

On August 11, 2015, the commission of inquiry announced that fragments of a Buk missile had been identified at the crash site . Other parts of the rocket had been catapulted into the interior of the aircraft and were found along with the aircraft wreck.

At the beginning of June 2016, the propulsion nozzle of a Buk missile was found.

Investigations

Organization of examinations

Aircraft accident investigation

According to international agreements on civil aviation , the responsibility for investigating the plane crash rests with Ukraine. Responsible were the National Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation of Ukraine (NBAAI) and an investigative commission set up by the Ukrainian government on July 17, 2014 under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman . The NBAAI started the accident investigation together with international experts on July 18. After the UN Security Council called for an independent international investigation under the auspices of the ICAO, Ukraine turned over the authority of the official investigations to the Netherlands on July 24 - an unprecedented process , according to Frans Timmermans , the Netherlands' foreign minister.

The Dutch authority Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid (OVV, Dutch Safety Board , DSB) was responsible for the aircraft accident investigation . She coordinated a 25-strong team that included experts from ICAO and Eurocontrol as well as investigators from Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia, France, Germany, the USA, Great Britain and Russia. Russia initially refused to participate and only joined later. The European Aviation Safety Agency and the Aviation Safety Authorities of Indonesia and Italy were also involved, as well as the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee of the CIS and the aircraft manufacturer Boeing . The Dutch National Police Forensic Investigations Team (LFTO) was commissioned with forensic investigations - in particular to identify the victims . It was supported by the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI, responsible for DNA analyzes ) and other institutions such as the German Federal Criminal Police Office and Scotland Yard .

The work for the final report included the examination of the flight data and voice recorder as well as radar recordings and the data recordings of further flight instruments and the radio communication of the air traffic control (air traffic controller discussions). Furthermore, weather conditions, wreckage (insofar as they could be recovered), and any foreign objects were examined. In addition, there were the results of the pathological examinations as well as the reconstruction of the process of the aircraft breaking apart, and finally the handling of the airlines when flying over a conflict region was considered.

JIT criminal investigation

Independently of these accident investigations, national law enforcement authorities became active shortly after the crash with the aim of identifying those responsible for the disaster and holding them accountable. With the support of the EU judicial authority Eurojust , an international team for criminal investigations ( Joint Investigation Team , JIT) was created, in which the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine were involved.

The investigations took place under the greatest security precautions; the devices used by investigators in eastern Ukraine, which had contact with local telephone networks, were subsequently destroyed. This was to prevent the Russian secret service, which also tried to obtain data from the investigators, from breaking into the computer systems. The secrecy was also maintained during the further investigation; shortly before the JIT presented the location where it was fired, Russia had presented its “own variant”, which suggested that Russia might have carried it out because of successful espionage, possibly in Malaysia. The Dutch authorities had confiscated a computer from a Russian agent detained in April 2018 that contained evidence that the Russian security services had tried to steal investigation data and tried to gain access to the data of the Malaysian Attorney General. At the beginning of the trial, a public prosecutor spoke of hacking attacks against investigators, and witnesses feared for their lives.

On September 28, 2016, the investigative commission presented the results of the criminal investigation in Nieuwegein , the Netherlands, based on recorded communications and radar data, among other things. According to this, the Buk system used in the shooting was brought to eastern Ukraine in July 2014. The missile was fired from a field near the village of Pervomaisky, south of Snizhne and east of Donetsk, and controlled by separatists and their Russian supporters in July 2014. After Flight MH17 was shot down, the Buk system was brought back to Russia. In an appeal, witnesses were sought who could identify other people based on the recorded telephone voices. Since April 2017, Sergei Dubinski has been named as one of the alleged coordinators of the postponement of the Buk system, a retired Russian major general who was last for the Russian armed forces in Chechnya from 2002 to 2004 and is said to have worked in eastern Ukraine for the military intelligence service established there . The Malaysian transport minister said in July 2017 that it was becoming apparent that several of the accused would be Russians. A local commandant of the DNR, Vadim Pogodin, one of three suspected of the torture and murder of a juvenile, was temporarily arrested in Crimea at the request of Ukraine. The Novaya Gazeta interpreted its re-release with a connection with the downing of flight MH17; he was one of those people who knew what had happened at Torez. Alexander Borodai , who was involved himself, had predicted that Pogodin would not be extradited to Ukraine despite alleged involvement in the criminal murder of a youth. In December 2017, the name of the presumably most directly involved, the member of the Russian armed forces with the rank of general Nikolai Fyodorowitsch Tkachev, was given, on which the JIT, as usual, did not want to comment before the investigation was concluded.

On September 20, 2017, the governments of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the commitment of political support to determine who was responsible for the shooting, followed in January 2019 by a further agreement on cost-sharing by these states. The investigation is being led by the Netherlands. According to the Dutch prosecutor , an indictment could undoubtedly be expected as early as autumn 2017.

In spring 2018, the JIT assigned the rocket launcher that had been brought to Ukraine to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian armed forces from Kursk . As a result, the JIT published another call for witnesses on May 24, 2018. It was explicitly addressed to the public because, since October 15, 2014, the Russian authorities have not provided all information that may be required under UN Security Council resolution 2166 . To determine who was involved, additional information was sought on the four questions "Who was involved?", "What was the order and by whom?", "Who was responsible that day?" And the command structure of the 53rd Brigade. The investigator explained that this was not an act of desperation, but that the investigation was well on its way and entering a new phase. Another call for information was made in relation to the guided weapon used with the serial number 9032. Novaya Gazeta asked whether this serial number could be used to present this serial number to the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu . When asked by the Novaya Gazeta correspondent , the investigator confirmed that he had more information than was publicly available. In addition to the Russian general Nikolai Tkachev, Bellingcat identified the colonel of the military intelligence service GRU Oleg Ivannikov as another main responsible person. The call for witnesses from May 2017 continued until a press conference on June 19, 2019 and was renewed in order to determine not only the procurers of the weapon system but also their operators and their dispatchers.

French President Macron was visiting President Putin when this call for witnesses was initiated and said he believed that it was Russia's job to be constructive in clarifying the truth, as the President (Putin) had just indicated would have. However, Putin explicitly denied that the plane was shot down by a Russian missile.

In September, the Russian Defense Ministry made several statements attempting to expose the missile launcher as inaccurate and assigned the serial number of the missile to the Ukrainian armed forces. The Novaya Gazeta then stated that these statements raised questions about the Russian Ministry of Defense: They pointed out a noticeable difference in handwriting on forms and asked why a document was actually presented, which according to the regulations should be with the missile (in Ukraine) , located in Russia. She was later presented with public documents apparently confirming the relocation of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and required clarification from the Department of Defense. According to The Insider , the shadow cast was actually easy to understand in a video in which the Russian ministry wanted to see inconsistencies. In addition, according to the Russian point of view, a single statement by a Ukrainian officer, still “taken out of context” by Russia, “hundreds of intercepted telephone calls” regarding the delivery of the Buk should be outweighed, when, according to The Insider, it was clear that Russia had the intercept all radio traffic in Ukraine. The JIT took note of the Russian statements. At the same time, the JIT reiterated Russia's failure to comply with UN resolution 2166 from 2014; Russia did not provide any substantive answers to precisely these questions in 2016/2017/2018. Russia even announced in August 2018 that the JIT should not make any further inquiries, previous inquiries had remained unanswered and earlier information had been inaccurate.

On June 19, 2019, it was announced at a press conference that four international arrest warrants had been issued. Three of the accused are Russians: the former rebel commander Igor Girkin , Girkin's deputy Sergei Dubinski and the then deputy chief of intelligence of the rebels in Donetsk, Oleg Pulatov. One accused is a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, who was commanding a rebel unit in eastern Ukraine at the time of the shooting down. These men are said to have been responsible for transporting the launcher to Ukraine. At the press conference, Vladislav Surkov presented a telephone call to people at a higher level, without whom the transport of Russian military material would hardly be possible. On July 11, 2014, he passed on the “Separatists' request for military reinforcement to those responsible for the military operation generally received positive feedback ". Investigators were confident there would be further charges, while Russia was again accused of "withholding critical information".

Another call to witness was issued in November 2019 regarding the command structures in Donetsk and the links with Russian government officials. The investigation revealed that the leadership of the anti-government forces had received instructions from the Russian Federation, contrary to their own claims to act autonomously. On a July 3, 2014 taping, Borodai said, “Well, you have far-reaching plans, but not mine. I follow orders and protect the interests of only one state, the Russian Federation. In the end, that's all. "

Process flow

The first trial was scheduled for March 9, 2020 in The Hague. One of the three Russians, Oleg Pulatov, whose appearance in court was not expected, had hired a Dutch law firm to represent him. In October 2019, Russia filed an application to start prosecuting the three Russian citizens in Russia. The Netherlands ruled out handing the prosecution to Russia. At the beginning of the negotiations, the prosecutor called Russia's actions a “cynical disinformation campaign”.

The negotiations from March 2020 to the end of November 2020 served as preliminary negotiations. Based on the activities on social media, the court could assume that some of the accused were aware of the trial and that they deliberately ignored the subpoenas and would therefore be heard in their absence. An expansion of the list of defendants was expected for the trial. Girkin rejected the the BBC jurisdiction from the court.

During the following preliminary negotiations, the complaints and motions of the defense of Oleg Pulatov were dealt with. It is obvious that the Russian state stands behind the pensioner and is unofficially a party through him, wrote Novaya Gazeta. In July, the court considered, among other things, the need for additional investigations; the defense attorneys had submitted a “colossal list of motions”, again including “alternative scenarios”. The court asked the defense to define instead which parts of the indictment they were contesting. Pulatov confirmed that he had taken part in the fight against the Ukrainian government. On July 17, 2014, he would have received a Strela rocket launch , but not the clearly distinguishable Buk. The defense attorney contested "the prevailing opinion in the court" that the defense intentionally wanted to delay the process.

On November 25, the court declared the preliminary hearing closed; some of the defense requests had been considered, the majority not. The court said that even the principles of negotiation under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights did not allow the defense to request a repetition of the entire investigation into the prosecutor; rather, these principles also required the avoidance of delays. The defense does not have the task of proving alternative scenarios of what happened, the task of the lawyers is to prove the innocence of their client. The defense also did not name a specific scenario to be investigated, while the case files contained all the information on such. The court wanted Pulatov to be physically present and would not ask written questions. Negotiations began after the November 25th trial.

In the absence of the four defendants, the criminal court opened the main proceedings in a specially secured building at Amsterdam Airport on June 7, 2021. The judge said that the court would present the extensive dossier in a neutral and impartial manner. The relatives of the victims should have their say in September 2021.

Technical aircraft accident investigation

Securing evidence

Last recordings of the flight data recorder

The flight data recorder had been recovered by the separatists on the day of the crash. The Malaysian government started negotiations with the political representatives of the separatists; Both sides agreed the removal and handover of the bodies, handover of the flight recorders and safe access to the crash site for independent investigators. The rebels then handed the flight data recorder along with the cockpit voice recorder to representatives of Malaysia. The devices were slightly damaged, but showed no signs of tampering. The data was then read out on behalf of the OVV and in the presence of international investigators by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the British aircraft accident investigation authority. Along with the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile (BEA), the AAIB is one of two institutions in Europe that has the necessary technology to play back voice recorder recordings.

NBAAI investigators examined the scene of the accident in the first few days after the crash, took photos and secured Boeing's on-board documents; these data were made available to the OVV investigation team. According to press reports, the recordings of radio communications between the MH17 pilots and the Ukrainian air traffic controllers were confiscated by the Ukrainian secret service . The Ambassador of Ukraine in Malaysia denied this.

The various materials collected by the OVV were used to create research reports and reproduced there in extracts, but the original will not be published.

At the end of June 2015, the Dutch investigators reported that representatives of the Luhansk People's Republic had obstructed the investigations in eastern Ukraine so significantly that they had to be abandoned without it being possible to examine the cell phone transmission systems and networks in the region.

Preliminary investigation report

On September 9, 2014, the OVV published a 34-page preliminary investigation report. The investigation team led by the OVV had not yet visited the crash site. The reason given was the fear of terrorism experts that the presence of aircraft accident investigators could endanger the victim recovery work; In addition, one saw special security risks for the investigators. Voice recorders and flight data recorders as well as maintenance logs from Malaysia Airlines were available as data. In addition to the available data, photos were evaluated, both publicly available and those taken by Ukrainian and Malaysian investigators and by Australian police officers. In addition, information on flight operations such as NOTAMs , the flight plans as well as weather data and crew status were checked. In addition, there were satellite images recorded in the days after the crash, the Ukrainian and Russian radar monitoring data and recordings of the air traffic controller conversations with flight MH17.

The report concluded that there was no evidence of technical failure or pilot error. The damage to be seen in the photos of the cockpit and front fuselage parts corresponds to what can be observed from the outside after the impact of numerous “objects at high speed” and, due to the geometry, from slightly above. This damage probably led to structural failure and the breakup of the aircraft. In addition, the final position of the crashed parts indicates that the cockpit was broken off first. The report made no statements about the nature or origin of the "high-speed objects". After research by the WDR, the NDR, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Dutch investigative team ARGOS, the preliminary investigation report was adjusted to include a sentence about the incomplete closure of the airspace, from which Ukraine's complicity in the accident could have been read.

Investigations of the wreckage in the Netherlands

From mid-February 2015, the international investigators worked on a Dutch air force base to inspect breaks and impacts in the wreckage and to reconstruct the aircraft in three dimensions.

Investigation of the buk system

In 2015, missile tests were carried out in Finland at the request of JIT investigators. At the request of the criminal investigators, the experiments were carried out without notifying the public; this should only take place during the criminal investigation. The Finns had to weigh up whether the usual agreement upon receipt of the affected Buk weapon system not to disclose any data about the system to third parties or the obligation of the United Nations Security Council to support the investigation with all means would take precedence. and opted for the latter. The debates that took place after the experiments became known about the delicate relations with Russia were called a “storm in a glass of water” by a specialist. A Buk test explosion took place in Ukraine.

Final report

Play media file

Reconstruction of the warhead explosion, Dutch investigative council for security ( Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid ), German subtitle

The report was published on October 13, 2015. In accordance with ICAO regulations, it had previously been available to all parties involved for 60 days for comment before it - after the comments had been incorporated - was made available to the public.

According to the results of the final report, a Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile exploded immediately to the left above the cockpit ; three people in the cockpit died immediately and the front part of the aircraft tore off. All other occupants of the plane lost consciousness within a few moments. The report makes no statements about those responsible for the rocket launch. He describes an area of ​​around 320 km² as the likely location of the rocket launch. This area also includes all possible locations calculated by the Russian specialists from Almas-Antei and the Ukrainian Kyiv Research Institute for Forensic Expertise . Determining the starting point more precisely was not part of the scope of the technical accident report.

Russia expressed a total of 74 requests for changes to the report, the extent of which differed significantly from those of the other parties involved. At the plenary sessions on February 25, 2015 and 6/7. May 2015 Russia had signed that "the plane was most likely shot down by a surface-to-air missile". Furthermore, in May only the flight path of the Buk had been discussed, but no longer the type of weapon. In the requests for changes to the final report, there was nevertheless the wish not to rule out “other scenarios”, for example shooting down with an air-to-air guided weapon. This proposed amendment was not taken into account, the report emphasized that all other declarations could be excluded. (Other possible scenarios that could have led to the disintegration and crash of the [airplane] were considered, analyzed, and excluded.)

The head of the investigation, Tjibbe Joustra, told the Volkskrant that he had the impression that Russia was trying to undermine the report with whatever, and that the Russians were constantly changing their minds. The Dutch Foreign Minister said that Russia was not interested in the final report, but only in "sowing confusion".

The report suggests an improvement in the risk assessment for civil aviation over conflict areas in accordance with the Chicago Convention , as the current system of responsibilities for safeguarding civil aviation does not provide sufficient means to adequately assess the risks associated with flying over conflict areas) . In the opinion of the investigative commission, there would have been enough reasons for a blockage as a precautionary measure, and the report therefore expresses criticism of the Ukrainian authorities, which only carried out a partial blockage.

Identification and repatriation of victims

All identification work took place in a barracks in the Netherlands; Passengers' personal belongings were also assigned to the owners there. By the beginning of August, 176 bodies and 527 body parts had arrived in the Corporaal Van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum, where 289 people could be identified by the end of October 2014. At the end of June 2015, 296 of 298 victims were identified; the last two cases (Dutch) probably remain unresolved.

Criminal and private investigations

Anonymous award of a reward 2014–2015

Between September 2014 and the end of May 2015, a German business detective agency was looking for informants about those responsible for the shooting for an anonymous client. A total of 47 million US dollars were for appropriate indications awarded and deposited in Switzerland. The chief investigator of the Dutch public prosecutor's office responsible for the plane crash warned against accepting this offer, saying that no one knew who the people were and what their intentions were. According to the detective agency, a suspected informant was placed and the order was thus completed, details are not known. In June 2016 it became known that the detective's apartment in Germany and a locker in Switzerland had been searched by the police.

Criticism and legal action by bereaved

In 2014, twenty victim relatives from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA wrote a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that a special UN representative should start international investigations into the shooting, as the Dutch authorities were building the case due to the inadequate collection of evidence messed up. The government rejected the proposal because eleven countries were already involved in the investigation.

Relatives of German victims also filed a lawsuit against the Ukrainian state at the European Court of Human Rights in 2014 through their lawyer Elmar Giemulla ; They see Ukraine's primary monetary motivation in keeping the contested airspace open, and they accused the country of manslaughter by omission.

In May 2016, Australian families filed a lawsuit for damages against Russia and President Putin in person.

On the third anniversary of the year 2017, relatives of the victims presented the Russian mission in The Hague with a collective letter requesting that Russia provide truthful information about the tragedy. They accused Russia of obstructing law enforcement.

In the run-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia , victims' relatives published a letter in which they explained to the Russian people that they were not responsible, but it was becoming increasingly clear that it was the Russian state and its leaders. With them, the Russian state media as well as private media channels that work with the authorities are involved in a "heinous and fraudulent campaign". At the beginning of June 2018, 298 white chairs were set up in protest in front of the Russian Embassy in The Hague.

With a view to the G20 summit at the end of November 2018, an association of victims' relatives called on US President Trump to convince Russian President Putin to disclose all information, for which it is never too late. They wrote that President Putin is working hard to go down in history as a great statesman - if he really is, “then he must understand that the hiding [of the truth] that is so evident in serious crimes like the attack on MH17 is counteracts its goal ”. The meeting was canceled by Trump shortly before, the reason for this was the incident in Crimea in 2018 .

The relatives of 55 victims filed a lawsuit against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in November 2018: the country violated the basic rights of those affected by the shooting itself, but also by obstructing the investigation. Russia not only failed to provide important facts, but also provided information that turned out to be untrue. The lawyer responsible said that a lawsuit in Russia was hopeless, so he hoped the court would accept the lawsuit directly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands announced its intention to negotiate with the Russian government about compensation for the relatives of the victims. Following diplomatic contacts with Russia and Russia's approval in principle in 2018, formal talks began in March 2019 about the investigation and about accountability and compensation payments. In response to a request from the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Novaya Gazeta had previously only received statements and accusations that required a high degree of interpretation "in the manner customary for her", which apparently still precluded formal recognition of full responsibility. In October 2020, Russia announced that it would break off talks. The Netherlands would press Russia "to admit guilt", so the reasoning. The reason for the rejection is the lawsuit brought by the Netherlands against Russia before the European Court of Human Rights . Another accusation by Russia was that it would not participate in the investigation; However, this results from the facts about the shooting down: the plane did not belong to Russia, did not fly to or from Russia, did not crash in Russia and there were no Russian citizens on board, nor did the plane enter the airspace of the Russian Federation.

Arrest, exchange and non-extradition of the possible witness Vladimir Zemach 2019

On June 27, 2019, members of the Ukrainian security authorities arrested Volodymyr Zemach and took him from Snizhne in eastern Ukraine to Kiev. The next day, his family was told that he was being tried in Ukraine on terrorist charges. Zemach was an officer in the "Slavyansk" militia unit, which was under the command of Igor Girkin; From 2014 to 2017 he commanded parts of the separatists' air defense . Its function at the time of shooting was unclear; however, it has been known since 2015 that he saw the plane crash. Zemach was deported to Russia in an exchange in September 2019, which the Ukrainian editor-in-chief of Deutsche Welle said was much more advantageous for Russia than for Ukraine, and in which the extradition of Zemach on the Russian side was a condition, against which the international criminal investigators protested . According to President Zelensky , they have already questioned Zemach. Russia did not comply with the JIT's request to extradite Zemach, or rather allowed him to return to the anti-government area of ​​Ukraine, although Russia had confirmed that it had received the extradition request before Zemach landed in Russia. When he was not taken into custody, there were Dutch-Russian contacts at the highest diplomatic level, for example a meeting of foreign ministers. After more than forty days, Russia announced that it did not know where Zemach was.

War crimes

In October 2014, the German Federal Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation against unknown persons for a possible war crime .

In mid-July 2015, the Dutch public prosecutor announced that charges of murder and possibly war crimes were possible. On July 29, 2015, Russia used its veto in the UN Security Council to block a resolution to set up an independent international tribunal. Eleven yes votes were against the Russian veto, while China, Angola and Venezuela abstained. The heads of government of the most affected countries were outraged that the Netherlands was determined to bring those responsible to justice. Since the Russian justification referred to the missing final report of the aircraft accident investigation, five states want to reintroduce the resolution after it is available.

In July 2020, the Dutch government announced that it would provide legal support to the victims' relatives and submit a state complaint against Russia to the European Court of Human Rights .

Assumptions before the technical investigation report and the criminal investigation are available

Before the official results of the investigation, there were also indications and statements that had been published by third parties. These sources were also evaluated by the investigators of the criminal investigation. The Dutch head of investigation spoke of a total of around 750 videos to be viewed, 20,000 photos and 350 million Internet pages. During the trial in June 2020, the public prosecutor's office stated that even after there was evidence of a shooting down by a Buk during the technical investigation, various other variants were still being considered and further investigated. The technical investigation had previously ruled out a defect in the aircraft, a lightning strike and a meteorite strike, i.e. an accident.

Variants of a shooting 2014/2015 published in the media

Guided missile system Buk M1 (sample photo)

Various pieces of information were taken on the day of the shooting down as an indication that separatist units mistook the Boeing 777 for a Ukrainian military machine and could therefore have shot it down. On the same afternoon, Russian media reported the shooting down of an AN-26 at the time in question in the area in question. The French photographer Jérôme Sassini had also been called by the separatists to inform him that they had shot down a Ukrainian military plane. Reports had previously appeared in social networks, in particular a vk.com user account attributed to the separatist leader Igor Girkin (alias Strelkow) accused in 2020 . For the area near Tores, it was announced that an An-26 military transport plane had been shot down at 17:37 Moscow time (13:37 UTC, about 15 minutes after the crash). A second report from the same user account shortly afterwards showed video recordings of a rising plume of smoke with the comment: "We warned you not to fly through 'our sky'" (Предупреждали же - не летать в 'нашем небе'). The reports were deleted shortly afterwards; However, copies of it were preserved in the Wayback Machine . Strelkov denied that the entry came from him. The Russian television broadcaster LifeNews , which is considered close to the government, also reported on its website at 6:34 pm Moscow time (2:34 pm UTC), citing "one of the militiamen" (по словам одного из ополченцев), around "5:30 pm Local time “an An-26 was shot down by a rocket near Tores (5:30 pm Ukrainian local time corresponds to 2:30 pm UTC; possibly 4:30 pm local time was meant). A few hours after the crash, the radio station “ Voice of Russia ” also reported that eyewitnesses in Tores had observed the launch of an Antonov An-26 by the “People's Militias” shortly after 4 p.m. local time.

On the same day, the Ukrainian secret service SBU published recordings of three telephone conversations that suggested a shooting down by separatists. In one of them, the rebel leader Igor Besler reported to a colonel in the Russian intelligence service GRU : “We shot down a plane. … It did not fall far from Yenakiyevo . ”Besler confirmed that this conversation had actually taken place, but denied a connection with flight MH17. Yenakievo is said to be 100 km from the crash site; his weapons would not reach that far (the actual distance is about 30 km; at 13:18 UTC MH17 flew over Yenakievo). Alexandr Kofman, a spokesman for the separatists, questioned the authenticity of the recordings and spoke of a "clumsy collage". The Corriere della Sera and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung cited statements on July 22, 2014 that are said to have come from members of a rebel unit. Shortly after the crash, they were ordered to arrest the pilots of a downed Ukrainian military aircraft, who were believed to have been able to parachute themselves. According to the FAZ, these statements corresponded to the sound recordings, according to which the separatists had assumed that a Ukrainian military plane had been shot down. A day later, Reuters quoted separatist commander Alexandr Chodakowski as saying that a unit other than his rebel unit had a Buk unit. Chodakowski immediately denied this representation; he had "no knowledge that the insurgents have such a weapon". In November he confirmed that in an interview with Reuters he had admitted that rebels owned a Buk system to the so-called Lugansk People's Republic . At the time in question, it was on its way towards the MH17 crash area, and the system was quickly withdrawn after the crash became known so as not to be falsely accused.

The fact that the wreckage of the civil aircraft that had now been found was scattered over a large area indicated that the aircraft had already broken apart at a great height. Experts rated the sifted parts of the cockpit and front fuselage as evidence of shrapnel impacts by a missile warhead , which probably detonated at the front left of the aircraft. Parts of the wing also showed holes and grazing marks. The breakup in the air spoke against an air-to-air guided missile, as such, according to experts, could only have damaged a Boeing 777 for the time being.

Since the day of the crash, guided missiles of the type Buk M1 (NATO code SA-11 Gadfly ), such as those owned by both the Ukrainian and Russian military, have been in discussion . US intelligence officials also mentioned the S-300PMU-1 (NATO code SA-20 Gargoyle ) on the day of the crash . Soon only the Buk missile was reported. Satellite images provided evidence of the rocket launch. Russia asked the United States to hand over the data on which the statements were based. The well-known military science information service IHS Jane's also suspected that it was a shot down by a Buk M1.

The sighting of a Buk system, for example, was mentioned behind closed doors to the Guardian correspondent , but above all photos and videos were circulating in the media and social networks that the transport of parts of a Buk system along the N 21 in a westerly direction through the should show rebel-controlled territory. Further pictures were taken near the crash area at Snizhne and Tores and when the system was transported east on the same day. A few hours before the crash, Associated Press (AP) reporters observed a buk system in Snizhne. On July 18, the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior published a video that is said to have been filmed in Luhansk the previous evening and shows a Buk system with an incomplete set of missiles. Bloggers on the Internet, and later the investigative blog Bellingcat , came to the conclusion that the video could be located in Luhansk. In addition, Bellingcat found that these and other photos correspond to photos that show a Buk-Starter taken in Russia at the end of June from the holdings of the Russian army. On March 19, 2015, the BBC published video recordings and photos of a rocket launcher, which could be assigned to the town of Suhres, east of Donetsk , on the basis of landmarks in the area . The photos were made available to the BBC by the Ukrainian government. The special number of the rocket carrier could be seen on all of these recordings. Whether the separatists also had a (functional) Buk unit is disputed. On June 29, 2014, Russian state media reported that it had taken over a Ukrainian air defense base with Buk systems; none of the reports had an up-to-date picture and both the Ukrainian authorities and the separatists denied the facts. The Ukrainian intelligence chief Vitaly Najda later explained that there was no concern about these reports because the Ukrainian army had already rendered the Buk systems in the region unusable in March; the warheads had been removed. One expert each from NATO and the International Institute for Strategic Studies questioned whether the rebels could operate such complex surface-to-air missile systems after a short time or without the support of third parties. Only the Federal Intelligence Service came to the conclusion in 2014 that flight MH17 had been shot down by separatists with a Buk system captured from Ukrainian stocks.

Later research

Investigative reporters from CORRECT! V in cooperation with the " Spiegel " and the Algemeen Dagblad were of the opinion in January 2015, based on circumstantial evidence and evidence , that the shooting down had taken place by a missile fired by the Russian military from the area north of Snizhne . Photos and videos, primarily from Bellingcat , are intended to conclusively document the route taken by the 3x2 missile launcher of an anti-aircraft brigade from the nearby city of Kursk in Russia to the launch site with the missile and back to Russia without the missile being launched. Daniel Romein of Bellingcat criticized the Correctiv investigative reporter for mislocating the photos of Tores and identified an alleged launch site south of Snizhne. He did not comment on Correctiv's thesis that the rocket was launched by the Russian military.

The investigative Dutch journalist Jeroen Akkermans , who searched the crash site several times, presented several metal fragments until April 2015 that had been assigned by experts to a warhead of a Buk missile. Almas-Antei, as the manufacturer of the guided weapon, specified the type as BUK-M1 due to the splinter fragments in June 2015. Novaya Gazeta published a Russian investigation report on May 5, 2015 , according to which the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile, but the launch site of the missile was suspected to be some 30 kilometers further west than the suspected missile launcher was observed previously suggested. It was pointed out on several occasions that this starting sector was probably also in the area controlled by the separatists and that the satellite images used in the Russian report again did not match the publicly available ones. Another Russian rocket expert spoke shortly afterwards of a collision course of the rocket, not of the lateral approach claimed later by Russia.

During research, a team from RTL News had access to photos and satellite images showing positions, clouds of smoke and burn marks on fields. These should occupy the launch site by surface-to-air missiles. The area in question is said to have been controlled by pro-Russian rebels at the time of the shooting.

In October 2015, the Novaya Gazeta published the battle names of the rebels who received the Buk thrower. According to the Correctiv report, the personnel of the thrower, including the unit commander, may have been dismissed from Russian military service and officially transferred to the service of the separatists.

On February 24, 2016, the Bellingcat research collective published a new report, according to which Russian soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Air Defense Brigade missiles of the Buk-M1 type and mobile launch ramps from Kursk to the Ukrainian-Russian border area between 23 and 25 June 2014 had relocated. One of these Buk missiles was later fired in the Donetsk separatist area, near Snizhne , according to the report . Based on this, Stratfor determined the location of a buoyancy unit that could be launched five hours before the launch. Bellingcat did not decide whether Russian soldiers or pro-Russian separatists would operate the Buk system, but the weapon system was expensive and very complex and it would take at least six months of training to be able to use it. For the first time, the report narrowed down the group of possible perpetrators. The decision to move a Buk-M1 system to the war zone was made at the top level of the Russian air defense. The decision to send military equipment to Ukraine at all was made by the Defense Minister or Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin.

On September 28, 2016, the Dutch-led official committee of inquiry published its report. It largely coincided with the above information. However, legally clear responsibilities could not be made (see above).

At the end of May 2018, Bellingcat activists published their evidence on a supposedly responsible person. A Russian citizen and possible GRU officer by the name of Oleg Wladimirowitsch Iwannikow (Russian: Олег Владимирович Иванников), born in April 1967 in Chemnitz , who after the Caucasus War in 2008 in South Ossetia as "Andrei" from 2006 to 2008 under the pseudonym "Andrei" Defense Minister ”is said to have occurred. Next, Ivannikov appeared in eastern Ukraine and called himself “Andrei Ivanovich” there. It is said that it was he who mentioned in a telephone conversation with Oleg Bugrov, then Defense Minister of the Lugansk People's Republic on July 14, 2014 that “they” had procured a Buk and would shoot down Ukrainian planes. Research and testimony also suggested that at the time of the shooting down of MH-17, Oleg Ivannikov was in command of parts of the pro-Russian military units, including the fighters of the Wagner group in eastern Ukraine.

Russian points of view

This satellite photo was released by the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is said to have been taken on July 17, 2014 near the village of Saroschtschenske ( Зарощенське ) a few hours before the shooting down and show two Buk-M1s and an armored vehicle. The Ukrainian secret service described the photo as a fake, and a digital image analysis in May 2015 showed that the vehicles had been inserted into the picture.

During the press conference of the Russian Defense Ministry on July 21, 2014, two variants were presented, which exclusively brought the opposing Ukrainian armed forces into connection with the shooting down. On the one hand, it located the well-known video of the missile launcher with the missing missile in Krasnoarmiysk, which is controlled by the Ukrainian army . On the other hand, the radar echo coming from debris was interpreted “next to” flight MH17 as a “Ukrainian fighter aircraft”. Bloggers on the Internet and, later, the investigative blog Bellingcat , however, came to the conclusion that the video could be located in Luhansk and that the address in Krasnoarmiysk highlighted on a poster during the Russian presentation was itself a forgery by the Russian Defense Ministry.

In complete contradiction to the official Russian statements, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, well-known for its research , placed the depressing image of the long column of Dutch hearse on its cover on July 25, 2014, along with the headline “Forgive us, the Netherlands”.

Movements of Buk missiles by the Ukrainian military

Satellite images published by the Russian military, which are said to show Ukrainian Buk units near the crash site, were rejected by the Ukrainian secret service as falsified.

On June 1, 2015, the investigative journalist group Bellingcat published its analysis of the satellite photos published by the Russian side from July 21, 2014. According to Bellingcat, the details of the content of these photos showed clear discrepancies with the allegations made by the official Russian side. The alleged date of the recordings, July 14, 2014, could not be correct, as can be seen from the vegetation. The photos should have been taken weeks beforehand. The published photos were also digitally post-processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5 and therefore unsuitable as objective evidence in this form. In terms of image processing, Bellingcat was criticized by, among others, image forensic scientist Jens Kriese with regard to the "error level analysis" method used. Bellingcat later also named the differences in a direct comparison of the Russian images, allegedly taken on July 17th, with commercial images from DigitalGlobe from July 17th.

Alleged presence of a Ukrainian fighter plane

Su-25 (sample photo)

The Russian military claimed for the first time on 21 July 2014 that during the Malaysia Airlines crash a Ukrainian fighter aircraft of the type Su-25 was present. As proof of this, a radar image was shown on which another, stationary and unmarked radar echo near that of MH17 appeared at 13:21:35 UTC. Ukraine denied that its own fighter planes were in the air at the time. The former commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force Pyotr Deinekin later said that several parts of the broken Boeing could be seen on radar images.

Speculation about being shot down by another aircraft

The Malaysian daily New Straits Times (NST) took up theories based on considerations by journalist Robert Parry and a quote from Michael Bociurkiw , spokesman for the OSCE observer mission. Bociurkiw - by his own admission "not an expert on anything like this" - had said that two or three aircraft parts looked " pockmarked , so riddled as if from continuous (" very, very strong ") machine gun fire". Parry considered this portrayal of Bociurkiw to be significant and believed that he could see bullet holes from 30 mm projectiles in photos of wreckage on both sides of the aircraft, such as those used on Su-25s. Two Malaysian ministers warned of speculation and rumors online following the NST publications. The theory found dissemination on various Internet sites apart from the mass media. The Süddeutsche Zeitung spoke of "wild conspiracy theories" on the Internet.

In an interview with various German media ( NDR , WDR , SZ ), the Russian chief developer of the Su-25, Wladimir Babak , ruled that a Su-25 could not be shot down. This is technically unthinkable; the wreckage on the ground would show that MH-17 broke apart in the air and was therefore shot down by a Buk missile. Vadim Lukashevich, a former developer at Sukhoi, described the Su-25 variant as impossible a few days after it was shot down during a broadcast on RBK .

After Russia demanded the release of all US data at the press conference on July 21, 2014, the narrative was maintained that Russia had provided all data. With the publication of the interim report it became clear that this was not the case: the primary raw data from the Russian radar had not been made available to the investigative commission. In May 2015, it was stated that the data was no longer available and Russia said that "this information was not saved because you (Russia) were not required to do so because the crash did not take place on Russian territory." The investigation report mentions this non-compliance with ICAO standards. Without the availability of the raw data, Russia was still able to claim that there might have been a Ukrainian aircraft in the vicinity without the transponder switched on.

In the report of September 28, 2016 it was stated that Russia also denied the presence of another aircraft: Shortly before the Dutch investigators announced the first results of the criminal investigation on September 28, 2016, the previously declared primary data from the surveillance radar should suddenly appear in Russia be. Now, in turn, the Russian manufacturer Almas-Antei claimed that a missile should have been visible on the radar, while independent experts confirmed to the JIT that there were several reasons why the missile did not appear on the radar.

Russian propaganda

See also : Propaganda in the Russian Federation

In general, media observers describe the reporting by the Russian media close to the state as “propagandistic” and “untrue”. In the case of MH17, there was a “bombardment of propaganda and disinformation” aimed at distracting from the guilty party and “creating confusion with multiple explanatory petards ” so that people would give up looking for the truth.

According to a study by the Levada Center , an independent Russian polling institute , in the week after the crash and after an immediate flood of Russian conspiracy theories, 46 percent of the Russian population believed that the Ukrainian armed forces had launched a rocket and another 36 percent believed that a Ukrainian one Fighter aircraft; only 4 percent thought the separatists were responsible. Public opinion in Russia is strongly influenced by state-controlled television , which has created a "different reality". The last TV show in Russia that was deemed independent and critical of the government ran on the private broadcaster REN and was discontinued two weeks after the MH17 crash.

In support of the thesis that a Ukrainian Buk position had been shot down, Russian state media quoted Robert Parry as saying that a "previously reliable intelligence source had said" that there was information that would suggest this.

The Russian media later reported that it could have been a failed Buk-M1 missile during a Ukrainian anti-aircraft exercise, based on the accidental downing of Sibir Flight 1812 in 2001.

In September 2014, the Association of Engineers of Russia published a study that - based on material published by the Russian military in July - attempted to prove a downing by Ukrainian Su-25 or MiG-29 fighter jets . According to the report, two approaches should have been flown and the Boeing's flight control system would not have failed until the second attack.

In November 2014, the Russian state television broadcaster Perwy kanal published an image that was supposed to be a satellite image of the Malaysia Airlines machine being attacked by a fighter plane - now of the Mig-29 or Su-27 type. The source of the picture was again the aforementioned Association of Engineers of Russia , to which it was "leaked". Bloggers in Russia and other countries analyzed the picture and pointed out numerous inconsistencies within hours; purely because of the proportions, it was a clear fake. The CEO of the Perwy kanal, Konstantin Ernst, later called it a mistake to spread such an obvious fake, but this was "not done on purpose".

Even in the summer of 2015, a year after the shooting down, the Russian state media kept spreading new theories, such as the variant that an Israeli-type air-to-air guided weapon was used during the shooting down. The report alleged that a heat-seeking infrared seeker head had flown towards the radiation from the weather radar of the Malaysia Airlines plane and therefore exploded in the cockpit area. In addition, this guided weapon of the Israeli type Python, allegedly procured by Georgia, was compared with the Soviet Wympel R-60 .

On the same day another variant was published by the same Russian medium, according to which it was not the Ukrainian army but a volunteer battalion who was responsible for a Ukrainian BUK shooting down, and a bomb on board the aircraft was also named as the cause of the crash, including an eyewitness. Also because of the explosion noise recorded by 4 cockpit microphones milliseconds before the end of all recordings by the voice recorder, a bomb on board was not considered; Due to the tiny time differences in the recording, the location of the explosion could be located on the left outside of the aircraft. This corresponds to the materially detectable traces such as traces of soot on the outside of the aircraft.

Around this time, President Putin had repeated a story about a long-unmasked fake of a “Spanish air traffic controller” in Ukraine, which had been one of the longest circulating hoaxes . After it had long been clear that the man had never been a pilot, researching journalists began to track down the origin of the hoax in autumn 2017.

In particular, however, the reporting by the Russian state media since spring 2015 has focused on fundamentally questioning the Dutch investigation and calling for an “independent investigation”. At the same time, up to the Russian veto on July 29, 2015, it raised the mood against an international tribunal , on the grounds that the investigation report that was criticized was not yet finished.

Just on the day of the presentation of the final report of the international commission of inquiry, a press conference of the guided weapons manufacturer Almas-Antay was held in Russia . The NZZ found that the statements contradicted the statements made in June 2015 and said that Russia itself had once again "contributed more to the confusion than to the clarification". Novaya Gazeta's question as to whether the new report was made available to the criminal investigators was answered by stating that it was in a hurry to evaluate the data from the experiments before the final report of the aircraft accident investigation was published. But if the investigative committee “asked about it”, it would certainly be made available.

Overall, the narrative of the Kremlin-controlled media followed the strategy of denying, confusing and accusing, according to experts Luke Harding , Ben Nimmo and Peter Pomerantsev , the latter describing the MH17 incidents as "the best example of propaganda".

Other guesswork

In August 2014, the Ukrainian secret service SBU spread the theory that the rebels had actually wanted to shoot down an Aeroflot aircraft (flight AFL-2074 or SU2074 from Moscow to Cyprus) in order to provoke a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Another story of confusion appeared on Russian news websites on July 18, 2014: Ukraine wanted to shoot down Vladimir Putin's presidential plane, which was in Ukrainian airspace at around the same time. In fact, the Russian presidential plane was never in Ukrainian airspace and the courses of both machines crossed in Polish airspace near Warsaw.

Separatist officer Igor Girkin was one of the propagators of the theory that “American intelligence” had sent a plane full of dead to Ukraine just one day after his alleged triumphant report of being shot down. Girkin specified this version in 2017: "Russia's opponents" deliberately crashed an aircraft with 298 bodies on board over the combat area. He also confirmed, however, that it is not a “Landwehr” made up of citizens of the region, but the “regular army” of Russia who are fighting in eastern Ukraine.

consequences

Assuming Russia was partly responsible for the plane crash, the European Union and the United States tightened the sanctions they imposed on Russia during the Crimean and Ukraine crises in 2014 and issued further entry bans and account freezes on July 22, 2014.

Malaysia Airlines discontinued flight number MH17 after the accident; the route Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur has been continued as MH19 since then. The airline, which was already financially troubled, became a restructuring case due to the two aircraft losses in 2014 . The majority state-owned company is now to be completely nationalized, taken off the stock exchange and "completely rebuilt".

In addition to personal support, the families of the victims each received a payment of US $ 5,000 from Malaysia Airlines  . In addition, the airline offered $ 50,000 in compensation to be offset against subsequent court-established claims. The Montreal Convention on Liability in Civil Aviation provides for compensation of up to $ 183,000 per victim; Malaysia Airlines paid this amount on Flight 370 .

In the aviation industry, the handling of crisis regions has changed. Many airlines decided to fly around the area affected by the civil war in Syria and Iraq . In August 2014, the ICAO set up a working group to review the roles and processes involved in handling aviation risks in crisis regions. A first step was the decision to set up a database with information on current conflict regions to which all airlines have access; In addition, a special code for armed conflicts is introduced in NOTAMs .

Commemoration

On November 10, 2014 , a national memorial service for the victims took place in the Amsterdam suburb of Haarlemmermeer , not far from Schiphol Airport .

→ Main article : Nationaal Monument MH17

National Monument MH17

On July 17, 2017, the third anniversary of the shooting, the National Monument MH17 in Vijfhuizen (Haarlemmermeer) was inaugurated as a memorial for the victims with lively public sympathy.

See also

• List of downed aircraft in civil aviation

Web links

Commons : Malaysia Airlines Flight 17  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Official announcements

• MH17 Crash - English Spoken - Visual representation of the final report on YouTube - Published by Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid on October 13, 2015 (English)
• Announcements on flight MH17 of the Ukrainian Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (Ukrainian)
• MH17 Crash ( Memento of October 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Investigation report of the Dutch authority Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid of October 13, 2015 (English)
• Criminal case MH17 on the website of the court in The Hague (English, Dutch)

Other sources

• Data and flight route at FlightAware
• Until 13 October 2015 tracked coverage of Flight MH17 of Aviation Herald (English)
• MH17 hull parts ( Memento from September 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) - series of images of the fragments of MH17 with assignment to the aircraft fuselage in storify.com (English)
• Death flight MH-17: who shot why. - Multimedia page in Spiegel Online (cooperation; for details see imprint )
• Marcus Bensmann, David Crawford: Flight MH17. The search for the truth. In: correctiv , Cooperation Der Spiegel , Algemeen Dagblad , correctiv . January 9, 2015.
• Vadim Lukaschewitsch: "The Tragedy of MH17 - Truth and Lies" in 2 volumes , from December 27, 2020

annotation

1. ↑ including all (15) crew members

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MAS17 / MH17) crashes in Ukraine ( memento from July 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on de.flightaware.com, July 18, 2014, accessed on July 25, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Брифинг Минобороны России по катастрофе Boeing 777 около Донецка. (Russian / English): Radar images of southeastern Ukraine published by the Russian military on July 21, 2014 on July 17, 2014 at 1:19 pm to 1:25 pm UTC; YouTube channel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, July 22, 2014, accessed on May 15, 2015. The correctness of some of the statements made during this press conference is controversial.
3. ↑ 80 children among the 298 dead. In: n-tv . Retrieved July 18, 2014 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Map MH17 air disaster. (PDF) Map of the crash area on www.government.nl, August 10, 2014, accessed on February 14, 2016.
   Map of a Tragedy: How MH17 Came Apart Over Ukraine. from graphics.wsj.com, July 2014, accessed July 31, 2014.
5. ↑ Sam Webb: First aerial images emerge showing the 8 square miles of devastation caused by shot down MH17. In: Daily Mail , July 21, 2014 (English).
6. ↑ ^{a b} Russians confirm missile launch. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 6, 2015.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Это был «Бук-М1». ( Memento of May 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Novaya Gazeta , May 5, 2015.
8. ↑ MH17: Image processing allegations against Russia. In: heise online (09: 55h: "Traces of Buk 9M38M1 missile fragments found on remains of MH17 Boeing - manufacturer").
9. ↑ Investigators identify Russian military unit in downing of flight MH17 . In: Reuters , May 24, 2018.
10. ↑ MH17 shooting down: Investigators blame the Russian army for shooting down planes . In: Zeit Online , May 24, 2018.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Investigations into the shooting down over Eastern Ukraine MH17: The rocket came from Russia. In: Tagesspiegel , September 28, 2016.
12. ↑ Tagesschau , accessed on September 29, 2016.
13. ↑ Flight International, June 5, 2018 (English), investigation report, p. 22.
14. ↑ MH17 missile owned by Russian brigade, investigators say . In: BBC , May 24, 2018.
15. ↑ ^{a b} MH17 launch: According to investigators, the missile came from Russia. at zeit.de, September 28, 2016 (accessed September 28, 2016).
16. ↑ Tim Hume and Claudia Rebaza: MH17 shot down by Buk missile brought from Russia, say investigators. In: BBC , September 28, 2016.
17. ↑ Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch: Malaysian flight MH17 downed by Russian-made missile: prosecutors. In: Reuters , September 28, 2016.
18. ^ Eva Hartog: A 'Long Haul' Still Ahead for Russia and Flight MH17 Crash. In: Moscow Times , September 28, 2016.
19. ↑ Christian Weisflog: "We have thousands of telephone recordings". In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 17, 2015 (interview with Fred Westerbeke).
20. ↑ Toby Sterling: Trials over downing of flight MH17 to be held in Netherlands. In: Reuters , July 5, 2017.
21. ↑ Malaysia Airlines 9M-MRD (Boeing 777 - MSN 28411) | Airfleets aviation. Retrieved July 17, 2014 . 
22. ↑ ^{a b} Friday, July 18, 01:30 PM GMT +0800 Media Statement 3: MH17 Incident. In: malaysiaairlines.com. Malaysia Airlines, July 18, 2014, accessed July 18, 2014 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b c d} Alternative scenarios , Dutch Law Enforcement Agency , June 9, 2002; "The JIT's investigation of various other scenarios continued even after the forensic investigation had already produced concrete evidence that flight MH17 had been shot down by a Buk missile"
24. ↑ Malaysia Airlines: Media Statement 2: MH17 Incident. July 18, 2014, accessed July 18, 2014 . 
25. ↑ IB Times: Malaysia Airline Updated Passenger List: Three Infants Among 298 Dead. July 18, 2014, accessed July 18, 2014 . 
26. ↑ MH17: AIDS conference organizers name six delegates killed in crash. on theguardian.com, July 19, 2014, accessed September 16, 2014.
    In memoriam Joep Lange en Jacqueline van Tongeren. / In Memory of Joep Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren. ( Memento of September 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at aidsfonds.nl, accessed on September 16, 2014.
27. ↑ Benjamin Dürr, Claus Hecking : "Suddenly everything is so close". In: Spiegel Online . July 18, 2014, accessed July 27, 2014 . 
28. ^ Victorians among those killed in MH17 crash: Premier. from www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au, July 18, 2014, accessed July 30, 2014.
29. ↑ Malaysian actress, Dutch hubby and baby with the MH17. ( Memento of July 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at www.themalaysianinsider.com, July 19, 2014, accessed on July 30, 2014.
30. ↑ Full flight information and flight history for Malaysia Airlines aircraft 9M-MRD ( memento from July 20, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) on www.flightradar24.com, archived from the original on September 20, 2014.
31. ↑ Emma Rapaport: Malaysia Airlines responds to criticism of MH17 flight path. (No longer available online.) July 18, 2014, archived from the original on July 20, 2014 ; accessed on July 18, 2014 . 
32. ↑ According to Malaysia Airlines, the flight plan for western Ukraine was 35,000 feet, but the air traffic controllers had assigned 33,000 feet (see Media Statement 4: MH17 Incident. On malaysiaairlines.com of July 18, 2014). According to the preliminary investigation report of the OVV, page 11, however, the flight plan provided for 33,000 feet.
33. ↑ ^{a b} Preliminary report; Crash involving Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight MH17; Hrabove, Ukraine - July 17, 2014. from onderzoeksraad.nl, September 9, 2014, accessed on September 9, 2014 (PDF).
34. ↑ Full flight history for Singapore Airlines flight SQ351. on flightradar24.com, accessed on September 9, 2014. Archive ( memento from September 9, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) from September 20, 2014.
35. ↑ Report van eerste bevindingen wijst op external oorzaak crash MH17. on onderzoeksraad.nl, September 9, 2014, accessed September 9, 2014 (Dutch).
36. ↑ Eyewitnesses claim Donbass militia downed Ukrainian An-26 plane - July 17, 2014
37. ↑ ^{a b c d} Summary report of a committee debate about: Current situation surrounding Flight MH17 disaster. from www.houseofrepresentatives.nl, July 29, 2014, accessed on August 14, 2014 ( MS Word format ). Statements by Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten on flight safety on page 11.
38. ↑ White spots on the flight map. In: The time . Page 2, July 24, 2014.
    Malaysian Airlines MH17 flying above perceived danger level. at www.airtrafficmanagement.net, July 18, 2014, accessed on August 11, 2014.
39. ↑ Airlines force pilots to use dangerous flight routes. In: n-tv.de. July 19, 2014. Retrieved July 19, 2014 . Christoph Seidler, Rainer Leurs: Why did the pilot fly through a war zone? In: Spiegel Online , July 18, 2014. 
    
40. ↑ ^{a b c} Alternative routes a question of costs. In: ORF-Online. July 18, 2014, accessed July 19, 2014 . 
41. ↑ Ukraine Plays Outsized Role as Global Aviation Crossroad. online.wsj.com, July 18, 2014, accessed August 5, 2014.
    Ukraine responsible for airspace safety: IATA. at www.smh.com.au, July 20, 2014, accessed August 5, 2014.
    Ukraine gets $ 200 million a year for allowing overflights at www.washingtonpost.com, July 23, 2014, accessed August 5, 2014.
42. ↑ List of valid NOTAM ( Memento from September 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on aisukraine.net, July 1, 2014, accessed on September 15, 2014 (PDF): NOTAM A1383 / 14.
43. ↑ Bojan Pancevski: MH17: Kiev defied warning on airspace , The Sunday Times on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2014
44. ↑ Response to Sunday Times article of 7 December 2014. In: Eurocontrol , 8 December 2014 (English).
45. ↑ Kiev speaks of shooting down "from Russian soil". In: N24 . July 14, 2014, accessed July 20, 2014 . 
46. ↑ Экипаж сбитого Ан-26 вышел на связь с Генштабом ВС Украины. In: lenta.ru , July 14, 2014 (Russian).
47. ↑ Ukraine: Military Plane 'Shot Down By Russia' , International Business Times, July 14, 2019
48. ↑ ^{a b} NOTAMs and Malaysia Airlines MH17. on blog.wandr.me, July 17, 2014, accessed on September 14, 2014.
49. ↑ Network of airways How flight routes are determined. Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 18, 2014, accessed on August 26, 2020 .  .
50. ↑ Lufthansa last flew 56 times over a war zone. In: Spiegel Online , July 18, 2014.
51. ↑ Full flight history for Air India flight AI113. on flightradar24.com, accessed on September 13, 2014. Archive from September 20, 2014.
52. ↑ ^{a b} Dutch Safety Board heads investigation: investigation effort in full swing, black boxes currently being read out. , Press release of the Dutch investigation agency OVV of July 23, 2014, accessed on July 28, 2014.
53. ↑ ^{a b} ICAO Launches 'Conflict Zone' Projects As MH17 Investigation Continues. on aviationweek.com, August 27, 2014, accessed October 10, 2014.
    Flight MH 17 and state responsibility for ensuring safety and security of air transport. at link.springer.com, October 2, 2014, accessed October 10, 2014.
54. ↑ 70 minutes to first apportionment. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 18, 2014.
55. ^ The President Initiated an Emergency State Commission to Investigate Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 Tragedy together with ICAO and International Experts. ( Memento of August 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at www.president.gov.ua, July 17, 2014, accessed on August 2, 2014.
56. ↑ Passenger plane crashes in the war zone. In: Die Welt , July 17, 2014.
57. ↑ Ukraine - Airliner shot down over eastern Ukraine. In: Reuters , July 17, 2014.
58. ↑ Ukraine says Malaysian airliner shot down, 295 dead: agency. In: Reuters , July 17, 2014 (English).
59. ↑ Malaysian airlines flight MH17: Tony Abbott says 'Russian-backed rebels' likely to blame on 'grim day' for Australia. In: Australian Broadcasting Corporation , July 18, 2014.
60. ↑ Ukraine and separatists accuse each other of shooting down. Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 17, 2014, accessed on August 26, 2020 .  .
61. ↑ Совещание по экономике началось с минуты молчания в память о погибших в авиакатастрофе над территорией of Ukraine. kremlin.ru, July 18, 2014, accessed July 18, 2014 (Russian). 
62. ^ ^{A b} Paul R. Gregory : Is Putin Preparing To Admit Guilt For MH17? , Forbes, March 15, 2017
63. ↑ Michael Remke: Obama wants an international commission of inquiry. In: Die Welt , July 18, 2014.
64. ↑ Transcript: President Obama's July 18 statement on Ukraine and Gaza. In: The Washington Post , July 18, 2014.
65. ↑ Thomas Kirchner: End of a close relationship. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 20, 2014.
66. ↑ UN Security Council to meet on Friday on Ukraine at reuters.com, July 17, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2014.
67. ↑ ^{a b} Press release of the United Nations Security Council of July 18, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2014.
68. ↑ ^{a b} UN Security Council demands access to the crash site. In: Die Zeit , July 21, 2014
69. ↑ Security Council condemns downing of Malaysian airliner, calls for international probe. UN News Center of July 21, 2014.
70. ↑ ^{a b c} "The challenge is to bring the case of MH17 to court". Interview with Fred Westerbeke. Novaya Gazeta , October 17, 2017.
71. ↑ Dominic Rushe, Shaun Walker: MH17 crash: Kerry lays out evidence of pro-Russia separatists' responsibility. (No longer available online.) In: the Guardian. July 20, 2014, archived from the original on July 20, 2014 ; Retrieved June 9, 2016 . 
72. ↑ ^{a b} OSCE observers are often disabled at www.deutschlandradiokultur.de, July 24, 2014, accessed on August 7, 2014.
    Swiss OSCE Ambassador raises allegations against separatists at www.tagesanzeiger.ch, July 20, 2014, accessed on 7th August 2014.
73. ↑ ^{a b c} Anton Zverev, Peter Graff: “Ukraine, rebels argue over wreck; Europeans give Putin 'last chance “from July 19, 2014, accessed on July 19, 2014
74. ↑ ^{a b} Outrage about the handling of the dead from flight MH17 on www.zeit.de, July 20, 2014, accessed on August 2, 2014.
75. ↑ Damning evidence of looting at MH17 crash site grows: Relatives claim victims' phones are answered by eastern Europeans, as rebel leader Igor orders troops to hand over seized jewelery for 'defense fund' on www.dailymail.co.uk, July 23 2014.
76. ↑ Le Massacre Des Innocents , Parismatch, July 24, 2014, Awarded April 16, 2015.
77. ↑ Kühlzug does not cool - experts see the indescribable on www.n-tv.de, July 21, 2014, accessed on August 11, 2014.
78. ↑ MH17 report suggests efforts were made to cover up causes of disaster , The Guardian, October 13, 2015.
79. ↑ ^{a b} MH17: Timeline of a tragedy on www.osce.org, July 21, 2014, update from July 23, 2014; "Returned on 19th July, and gained only a little more access."
80. ↑ MH17 Ukraine plane crash: What we know , BBC, June 19, 2019; "Whose job it was to observe the site ahead of the arrival of investigators"
81. ↑ Terrible pictures of the MH17 death wreck. In: Focus , July 21, 2014.
82. ↑ Disrespect in the rubble field at www.sueddeutsche.de, July 21, 2014, accessed on August 11, 2014.
83. ↑ Nina Jeglinski, Matthias Meisner : OSCE mission complains of chaotic conditions at the crash site. In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 19, 2014.
    Kiev and Volkswehr agree safety zone at the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing. In: RIA Novosti , July 19, 2014.
84. ↑ ^{a b c} Розслідування катастрофи літака Boeing 777 (investigation of the Boeing 777 crash) on nbaai.gov.ua, 18.-25. July 2014, accessed September 21, 2014.
85. ↑ Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine based on information received until 18:00 hrs, July 22 (Kyiv time) at www.osce.org, July 23, 2014, accessed on July 24, 2014.
86. ↑ Cockpit of MH17 found sawed in half at crash site at www.usatoday.com, July 23, 2014, accessed July 24, 2014.
87. ↑ Julia Smirnova: Holes on the fuselage should show traces of shrapnel. In: Die Welt , July 22, 2014.
88. ↑ Flight MH17 wreckage being used as roadblock on nypost.com, August 6, 2014, accessed August 8, 2014.
89. ↑ MH17 plane crash: Dutch experts examine bodies at www.bbc.com, July 21, 2014, accessed on July 29, 2014.
    MH370 search coordinator to lead Australia's MH17 probe panel at news.biharprabha.com, July 21, 2014, accessed on July 29, 2014.
    Live: Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash updates as British experts fly to Ukraine to join probe into disaster ( Memento from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on www.nationalheadlines.co.uk, July 19, 2014
90. ↑ ^{a b c} Summary Report of a Briefing at Civil Service Level. on www.houseofrepresentatives.nl, July 28, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2014 (MS Word format): The corresponding agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands was signed on July 24, 2014 (see nbaai.gov.ua ). According to its own statements , the OVV already assumed responsibility for the aircraft accident investigation on July 22; This was formally stipulated on July 23 onderzoeksraad.nl .
91. ↑ ^{a b} “Front runs above the MH17 crash site” on www.tageblatt.lu, August 9, 2014, accessed on August 11, 2014.
92. ↑ ^{a b} MH17: International investigators reach Malaysia Airlines crash site amid shelling at www.abc.net.au, August 1, 2014, accessed on August 9, 2014.
93. ↑ ^{a b} Malaysia secures agreement for international police deployment to MH17 crash site at www.malaysiaairlines.com, July 27, 2014, accessed on August 17, 2014.
94. ↑ Summary report of a committee debate about: Current situation surrounding Flight MH17 disaster at www.houseofrepresentatives.nl, July 25, 2014, accessed on August 17, 2014.
95. ↑ MH17 crash: Dutch PM rules out military mission to secure site at www.bbc.com, August 27, 2014, accessed on August 10, 2014.
    Australia days away from sending 'non-threatening' force into MH17 crash site at www. smh.com.au, July 27, 2014, accessed on July 10, 2014.
    Malaysia rules out military mission to secure MH17 crash site ( memento of September 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at www.channelnewsasia.com, August 7, 2014 , accessed August 10, 2014; Archived version from September 18, 2014.
96. ↑ Black garbage bags in the train wagon on taz.de, July 22, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2014.
97. ↑ After the shooting down of MH17 - separatists refuse access to victims. FAZ of July 20, 2014, accessed on July 27, 2014.
98. ↑ Separatists hand over black box to Malaysian experts. In: Spiegel Online . July 22, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014 . 
99. ↑ Dossier: Plane Crash in Ukraine. on bazonlone.ch, July 23, 2014, 10:45 pm, accessed on July 27, 2014.
    MH17 bodies leave Ukraine rebel area and reach Kharkiv. from www.bbc.com, July 22, 2014, accessed July 2, 2014.
100. ↑ MH17: Australian investigators find new sections of aircraft, human remains , The Age, July 25, 2014
101. ↑ ^{a b c d} Summary report of a briefing at civil service level at www.houseofrepresentatives.nl, 13 or 14 August 2014, accessed on 15 August 2014 ( docx ).
102. ↑ MH17: Dutch prime minister calls halt to search for victims at www.theguardian.com, August 6, 2014, accessed on August 10, 2014.
103. ↑ Niklaus Nuspliger: Land in Mourning. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 25, 2014.
     Last flight with MH17 corpses ( memento from March 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at www.tagesschau.de, July 26, 2014, accessed on August 6, 2014; Archived version from March 18, 2015.
104. ↑ Foreign police are allowed to go to the crash site ( memento from March 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at www.tagesschau.de, July 27, 2014, accessed on July 27, 2014; Archive version of March 21, 2015.
105. ↑ Work on the MH17 crash site posted on www.fr-online.de, August 6, 2014, accessed on August 15, 2014.
106. ↑ Fighting hinders the rescue of MH17 victims in the Ukraine on www.derwesten.de, July 28, 2014, accessed on August 9, 2014.
107. ^ Christian Neef : Frustration in the rubble field. In: Spiegel Online , August 6, 2014.
     MH17 crash: search for remains halted as Australia begins day of mourning at www.theguardian.com, August 7, 2014, accessed on August 10, 2014.
108. ↑ Malaysia dismayed over Ukraine's empty MH17 promise on worldbulletin.net, September 26, 2014, accessed October 13, 2014.
109. ↑ Additional MH17 crash investigators return to Netherlands on oneindia.in, September 20, 2014, accessed on September 21, 2014.
110. ↑ Liow: MH17 investigators have less than a month to gather evidence . In: thestar.com.my , September 29, 2014, accessed October 1, 2014.
111. ↑ Ukrainian teams to resume MH17 crash site search: report . In: smh.com.au , October 13, 2014, accessed October 13, 2014.
     Dutch Experts Help Recover MH17 Crash Items Despite Nearby Clashes . In: newsweek.com , October 13, 2014, accessed October 14, 2014.
112. ↑ North west of MH17 crash site not yet searched. In: dutchnews.nl , October 14, 2014, accessed October 31, 2014.
113. ↑ New human remains found at MH17 crash site. In: smh.com.au , November 1, 2014, accessed April 20, 2015.
114. ↑ Dutch Safety Board commissions the recovery of MH17 wreckage . In: onderzoeksraad.nl , November 6, 2014, accessed on November 9, 2014.
115. ↑ Ukraine Rebels Say More Remains Found at MH17 Site . In: abcnews.go.co , November 7, 2014, accessed November 9, 2014.
116. ↑ Slachtoffers MH17-ramp terug in Nederland . ( Memento of November 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: rijksoverheid.nl , November 8, 2014, accessed on November 9, 2014.
117. ↑ Recovery wreckage MH17 started. OVV, November 16, 2014, accessed November 20, 2014.
118. ^ Shards of Truth in MH17 Investigation . In: The Daily Beast , March 4, 2015.
119. ↑ Other remains of the crash victims recovered from Flight MH17. In: Spiegel Online . February 2, 2015, accessed April 20, 2015 . 
120. ↑ Last coffins arrived in the Netherlands. Deutschlandfunk, May 2, 2015.
121. ↑ MH17: 'Russian missile parts' at Ukraine crash site. BBC News, August 11, 2015, accessed August 11, 2015 . 
122. ^ Film for the final report, published by the OVV
123. ↑ MH17 investigators reveal an exhaust of a Russian-built BUK missile was found at the crash site. In: NewsComAu. Retrieved June 12, 2016 . 
124. ↑ Ukraine Requests ICAO Assistance in MH17 Accident Investigation. on www.icao.int, July 18, 2014, accessed on July 27, 2014. Archive from July 26, 2014.
125. ↑ Press-release: Position of Ukraine regarding the catastrophe of Malaysia airlines flight MH 17.Press release of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of July 24, 2014, accessed on July 27, 2014.
126. ↑ Chancellor Merkel telephoned the Russian President Putin. Press release of the German Federal Government at www.bundesregierung.de, July 19, 2014, accessed on July 28, 2014.
127. ↑ ^{a b c d} Questions and answers concerning the investigation into flight MH17. OVV of August 21, 2014, viewed on August 21, 2014.
     Question and answer about het onderzoek naar het neerstorten van vlucht MH17. OVV of August 20, 2014, accessed on August 22, 2014.
128. ↑ Crahs du vol MH17: 4 questions sur l'enquête internationale. Le Nouvel Observateur from July 21, 2014
129. ↑ Identification of the victims. at www.welt.de, July 22, 2014, accessed on August 14, 2014.
130. ↑ International cooperation in the crash investigation of flight MH17. at www.aerointernational.de, accessed on August 10, 2014.
131. ↑ Families of Malaysia Airlines MH17 passengers will be asked a horrifying question. at www.news.com.au, August 10, 2014, accessed on August 12, 2014.
132. ↑ MH17: Stop speculative reporting, says Ukraine envoy. In: New Straits Times , November 21, 2014, accessed November 28, 2014.
133. ↑ Trojan Worm of Doubt. In: Novaya Gazeta , December 12, 2017.
134. ↑ Five questions about MH17 determination. nos.nl, March 2nd, 2015.
135. ↑ MH17: The Netherlands and Australia worked in the deepest secrecy against Russia , RTL, June 23, 2018
136. ↑ Russian spies targeted MH17 files, says Dutch Defense Minister , news.com.au, October 5, 2018
137. ↑ Failure, continued failure , Novaya Gazeta, October 5, 2018
138. ↑ ^{a b} Allegations against Russia in the MH17 trial , Die Zeit, March 10, 2020; "The Russian government may try to obstruct the investigation, said prosecutor Thijs Berger."
139. ^ Flight MH17 Call for witnesses. Call for witnesses by the Dutch police
140. ↑ "Hmuriy's" voice. Novaya Gazeta, April 24, 2017 (in English on April 26, 2017)
141. ↑ Those were the freaks from Moscow. NZZ, April 27, 2017.
142. ↑ Difficult search for the guilty party. General-Anzeiger Bonn , July 16, 2017.
143. ↑ They knocked his teeth in, then five shots in the head. Novaya Gazeta , July 28, 2017
144. ↑ Russia to answer to Strasbourg for shielding Donbas militant killer of Ukrainian schoolboy Stepan Chubenko , Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, August 1, 2017
145. ↑ How the "hero" who shot a teenager is linked to MH17. Novaya Gazeta , August 1, 2017.
146. ↑ MH17-suspected vol in beeld. De Telegraaf , March 7, 2018.
147. ↑ Memorandum of Understanding regarding the financial support for the prosecution of MH17 , text published by the Dutch government; "The Signatories arrange to jointly finance the proceedings connected with the prosecution in the Netherlands of those suspected of downing flight MH17 (...)."
148. ^ The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of 5 states signed the Memorandum on the prosecuting the perpetrators of the downing of flight MH17. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 21, 2017.
149. ↑ ^{a b} MH17 downed by Russian military missile system, say investigators , The Guardian, May 24, 2018
150. ↑ Buk-rocket the MH17 neerhaalde was van 53e brigade van Russische strijdkrachten , NOS, 24 May 2018
151. ^ Evidence 9032 , Novaya Gazeta, May 25, 2018
152. ↑ "There is more evidence, but we will not reveal the cards." - The "Buk" that shot down MH17 comes from the 53rd Flak Kursk Brigade , Novaya Gazeta, May 24, 2018
153. ^ Battle names Delfin and Orion , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 29, 2018, p. 3.
154. ↑ The Netherlands will hold a press conference on the downing of the MH17. The names of some of those involved in the tragedy are then named. , Novaya Gazeta, June 14, 2019
155. ↑ ^{a b} Downing flight MH17: four suspects accused of mass murder , “ Echo der Zeit ” from Wednesday, June 19, 2019
156. ↑ ^{a b} Murder charges against three Russians and one Ukrainian for shooting down the MH17 , NZZ, June 19, 2019
157. ↑ Soaring pragmatism - The most notable outcome of the Putin-Macron meetings is the response to news of the investigation into the MH17 tragedy , Novaya Gazeta , May 28, 2018
158. ^ Battle names Delfin and Orion , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 29, 2018, p. 3.
159. ↑ Recovered to Believe? , Novaya Gazeta, September 18, 2018
160. ↑ Formalized Form, Standard , Novaya Gazeta, September 21, 2018
161. ↑ INQUIRIES “I have no right to talk about the actions of the motherland” , Novaya Gazeta, June 5, 2019
162. ^ Ministry of Excuses. 6 fakes from the Department of Defense press conference about the crashed “Boeing” , The Insider September 17, 2018
163. ↑ Restored Faith? , Novaya Gazeta, September 17, 2018; Quote: "And the recording of a telephone conversation, called 'direct evidence' by General Konashenkov, does not prove anything, either directly or indirectly."
164. ↑ Reactie JIT op persconferentie Russische ministerie van Defensie , JIT statement at the Openbaar Ministry, September 17, 2018
165. ↑ MH17 crash: Dutch ask Russia to submit new claims , BBC, September 17, 2018; "Prosecutors say Russian information so far has been wrong 'on several points' and previous requests for help have been unanswered."
166. ↑ Russia's Defense Ministry unveils its latest MH17 denial , Meduza, September 18, 2018
167. ↑ MH17: Four charged with shooting down plane over Ukraine BBC of June 19, 2019
168. ↑ The Netherlands issue arrest warrants for mass murder , SRF News, June 19, 2019
169. ↑ "Russia's influence on the DPR went beyond military support": The investigators published new data on the crash of MH17 , Novaya Gazeta, November 14, 2019
170. ↑ ^{a b} MH17 Witness Appeal November 2019. politie.nl (website of the Dutch police), accessed on November 14, 2019 (English). 
171. ↑ Dutch refused Moscow request to try MH17 Russian suspects there: minister , reuters, February 12, 2020
172. ↑ MH17 shot down in court: The emotions are boiling, but the dock remains empty , NZZ, March 9, 2020
173. ^ Court Days
174. ↑ ^{a b} Summary of the Day in Court Wednesday 25 November 2020 ( Memento from November 27, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
175. ↑ Одним «Буком» мазаны , Novaya Gazeta, March 11, 2020 (Russian)
176. ↑ Flight MH17: Trial opens of four accused of murdering 298 over Ukraine , BBC
177. ↑ ^{a b c} “Today we don't have any cucumbers, I can only make noise with bees” , Novaya Gazeta, November 5, 2020
178. ↑ MH17 case: the court went to meet the defense , Novaya Gazeta, July 4, 2020; “Russia as a state is not formally linked to this court, but Pulatov's participation gives Moscow immediate access to the case materials, the ability to respond to its twists and, as recent sessions have shown, to complicate and slow down the process . "
179. ↑ Summary of the Day in Court 3 July 2020 ; “The court found that in this case the foundations of the BUK scenario presented by the public prosecutor's office would first have to be challenged. (...) If a defendant says, for example, that he was in a completely different place and has nothing to do with the charges brought against him, why should he want to investigate other scenarios? "
180. ↑ ^{a b} "Alternative scenarios" rejected - The MH17 court rejects attempts by the defense of Oleg Pulatov to delay the process with "additional investigative measures". , Novaya Gazeta, November 26, 2020; “The court believes there is no point in conducting further investigations and interrogating witnesses on most of the questions repeated by the defense. If the previous investigation did not produce a result, repeated requests to do the same under the same circumstances will not lead to a different result. "
181. ↑ MH17 judges reject request to investigate alternative crash scenarios , Swissinfo, November 25, 2020
182. ↑ The process of shooting down flight MH17 has begun , Deutschlandfunk, June 7, 2021.
183. ↑ ^{a b c} Benjamin Bidder : The first traces lead to the separatists. In: Spiegel Online , July 17, 2014.
184. ↑ malaysiaairlines.com
185. ↑ Black Box from MH17 is brought to London. In: Die Zeit , July 22, 2014.
186. ↑ Data Flight Data Recorder MH17 downloaded. (PDF) Press release of the OVV (English DSB) of July 24, 2014, accessed on July 29, 2014.
     Flight recorders are damaged - but the data is apparently intact. In: Spiegel Online , July 25, 2014.
187. ↑ Aircraft accident experts in UK lab to analyze Boeing black boxes. ITAR-TASS July 23, 2014, accessed July 29, 2014.
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188. ↑ MH17 plane crash: UK experts to retrieve flight data. from www.bbc.com, July 22, 2014, accessed August 18, 2014.
189. ↑ Ukrainian secret service checks radio traffic from the crashed machine. on www.faz.net, July 23, 2014, accessed on August 9, 2014.
190. ↑ Malaysia wants the 'missing' Ukrainian ATC tapes. from www.nst.com.my, August 8, 2014, accessed August 13, 2014.
191. ↑ David M. Herszenhorn: “Dutch Say Inquiry Into Malaysia Jet Crash Is Being Blocked in Ukraine”, New York Times, June 28, 2015.
192. ↑ MH17: Netherlands wrestles with huge criminal case. from www.bbc.com, August 17, 2014, accessed August 17, 2014.
193. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Kirchner: Crash of MH17 - Wild conspiracy theories. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 8, 2014.
194. ↑ Preliminary report points towards external cause of MH17 crash. on onderzoeksraad.nl, September 9, 2014, accessed on September 9, 2014: "… broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside."
195. ↑ tagesschau.de ( Memento from December 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
196. ↑ reuters.com
197. ^ Secret Buk Tests in Finland. ( Memento of September 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Telegraaf, September 27, 2016
198. ↑ Vanhanen Foreign Affairs Committee: “ Receiving rocket evidence ” , yle.fi, September 27, 2016
199. ↑ Näkökulma: Yllätetyn presidentin ja jurist tuska - "Nyt sitten joudumme avaamaan sanaisen arkkumme" , yle.fi, September 30, 2016
200. ↑ UPI's Aaltola Missile Stroke: A Storm in a Water Glass , uutiset, September 27, 2016
201. ↑ HS: Suomi panttaa salaisen ohjuskokeen tuloksia - Rikostutkija: "Kokeen tuloksia ei saatu tutkintaraporttiin" , yle.fi, September 30, 2016
202. ↑ Dutch investigators confirm that flight MH17 was shot down. In: Spiegel Online , October 13, 2015.
203. ↑ Dutch investigators confirm that the Buk missile was shot down. In: Spiegel Online , October 13, 2015.
204. ↑ Final report ( Memento of October 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), page 146 (PDF; 30 MB).
205. ↑ ^{a b} Quantum of Obfuscation. Bellingcat, October 16, 2015.
206. ↑ Change requests to the final report in the appendix to the report. ( Memento of October 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF).
207. ↑ How Dutch Investigators rebuffed Russia's Alternative Theories MH17. RFERL, October 13, 2015.
208. ↑ ^{a b} Russian Buk missile crashed MH17. NZZ, October 14, 2015.
209. ↑ Media: Russia 'sowing confusion' on MH17, says Dutch foreign minister. AFP, October 16, 2015.
210. ↑ Joustra: Russia wants to overturn the report, no matter what the cost. Volkskrant , October 16, 2015.
211. ↑ Crash: Malaysia B772 near Donetsk on Jul 17th 2014, aircraft was shot down from separatist controlled ground. The Aviation Herald , update October 13th.
212. ↑ FAQ Special Operations Flight MH17. ( Memento from September 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Frequently asked questions about the process on politie.nl, point 3
213. ↑ The ring around Donetsk is getting tighter. on www.faz.net, August 10, 2014, accessed August 14, 2014.
     127 victims identified by flight MH17. on orf.at, August 15, 2014, accessed on August 15, 2014.
214. ↑ In total 289 slachtoffers rampvlucht MH17 geïdentificeerd. ( Memento of November 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on rijksoverheid.nl, October 31, 2014, accessed on November 1, 2014.
215. ↑ Twee slachtoffers MH17 waarschijnlijk nooit geïdentificeerd , rtlnieuws.nl, June 30, 2015
216. ↑ ^{a b} Rainer Leurs: “Maybe the Russians know more?” In: Spiegel Online , October 27, 2014.
217. ↑ Jens Brambusch: Informant about MH 17 unpacks . In: Capital of June 15, 2015.
218. ↑ Raid in the case of the MH17 crash What does the German private investigator know? n-tv, June 7, 2016
219. ↑ Angry families of MH17 crash victims seek UN investigation , Reuters, December 5, 2014
220. ↑ Dutch reject MH17 relative 'request for UN-led crash inquiry. Reuters, December 9, 2014
221. ↑ Serious allegations against Ukrainian air traffic control. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 4, 2014, accessed March 9, 2015 . 
222. ↑ MH17: How much to blame is Ukraine? from www.dw.de, December 17, 2014, accessed on March 22, 2015.
223. ↑ MH17: Australian families of victims to sue Russia, Vladimir Putin , abc, net.au, May 22, 2016
224. ↑ We expect prosecution and full clarity. Novaya Gazeta, July 17, 2017
225. ↑ MH17 Survivors Call on Russia to “Stop Playing Games” with Investigation. NLTimes, July 17, 2017
226. ↑ We are tempted to react with hatred, but we will not give in. , Novaya Gazeta , May 22, 2018
227. ↑ Relatives of the victims of the MN17 protested under the Russian embassy in The Hague , Pravda UA, June 9, 2018
228. ↑ In front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Netherlands, empty chairs were installed in memory of the “Boeing” that was shot down over the Donbas , Fontanka.ru, June 9, 2018
229. ↑ Families of those killed in the MH17 crash ask Trump to persuade Putin to "redeem" , Novaya Gazeta, November 9, 2018
230. ↑ Trump's last-minute cancellation snubbed Putin , SPON, November 30, 2018
231. ↑ Relatives of the MH17 victims appear before the European Court of Human Rights , nos.nl, 23 November 2018
232. ↑ Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on the impossibility of further participation by Russia in tripartite consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on issues related to the MH17 plane crash in the sky over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 , October 15, 2020
233. ↑ Russia Explained # 56 , Novaya Gazeta,
234. ↑ MH17 shot down: The Netherlands and Australia start talks with Russia , euronews, March 27, 2019
235. ↑ Sometimes it is better to talk than chew the cud , Novaya Gazeta, February 9, 2019; "And a strategy aimed at confusion and discord no longer seems to work."
236. ↑ MH17: Russia breaks off talks about its role in the unfortunate flight , NiederlandeNet der Wilhelms-Universität Münster, October 16, 2020
237. ↑ Russia ends talks on the shooting down of a passenger plane , Die Zeit, October 15, 2020
238. ↑ Pay , but not admit? , Novaya Gazeta, October 16, 2020; “Russia has no and had no legal reasons to join the JIT, the plane does not belong to us, it did not fly to us or away from us, it did not fall on us, there were no Russian citizens on board and the plane did not fly into the airspace of the Russian Federation. However, Russia, represented by the Committee of Inquiry, interacted with the JIT and answered (but largely - not) inquiries under the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement. "
239. ↑ derstandard.at July 5, 2019: Kiev seizes key witnesses for Boeing downing in Donbass
240. ↑ Independent.co.uk of July 5, 2019 / Oliver Carroll: Kiev 'kidnaps' separatist anti-aircraft commander near MH17 crash site
241. ↑ Украинские спецслужбы вывезли из Снежного бывшего зенитчика. Рядом был сбит "Боинг" , BBC, July 4, 2019
242. ↑ The man could barely stand on his feet (Russian), Novaya Gazeta online, July 7, 2019
243. ↑ ^{a b} Selenskyj: Before the Ukrainian separatist Zemach was exchanged, Dutch investigators questioned him about the case of the shot down flight MH17 , Novaya Gazeta, September 7, 2019
244. ↑ Comment: Expensive prisoner exchange for Ukraine , DW, September 7, 2019
245. ↑ Press release Netherlands Public Prosecution Service concerning Mr Vladimir Tsemakh , press release from the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office, December 2, 2019
246. ↑ ^{a b} BND blames separatists for the MH17 crash. In: Spiegel Online , October 19, 2014.
247. ^ Roland Oliphant: One year on, MH17 evidence against separatists appears overwhelming. (English). The Telegraph, July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
248. ^ Resolution in the Security Council: Russia blocks MH17 tribunal. at tagesschau.de, July 29, 2015 (accessed July 30, 2015).
249. ↑ MH17-Tribunal: Moscow vetoed - lack of understanding of the West. SRF, July 30, 2015.
250. ↑ Five nations will try again for downed plane tribunal. Ukrainian Foreign Minister , Censor.net, July 31, 2015.
251. ↑ The Netherlands are suing Russia for shooting down flight MH17. In: Der Spiegel. July 10, 2020, accessed July 10, 2020 . 
252. ↑ MH-17 Investigator: An attack from the ground is the "most likely scenario". In: faz.net , September 12, 2014, accessed on September 12, 2014.
253. ↑ ^{a b c d} Questions and answers about the crash: What happened to flight MH17? In: tagesschau.de , July 18, 2014.
254. ↑ ^{a b} Lorenzo Cremonesi: "Così è stato colpito l'aereo". In: Corriere della Sera . July 22, 2014 (Italian)
255. ↑ ^{a b} Archive of the report on vk.com ( Memento from July 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
256. ↑ Christian Weisflog: The first traces lead to separatists. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 18, 2014.
257. ↑ Julia Smirnova: Airplane disaster: Did the separatists betray themselves with the videos? In: The world . July 17, 2014, accessed November 13, 2014 . 
258. ↑ ^{a b} Passenger jet possibly shot down: Boeing 777 crashed in eastern Ukraine. In: tagesschau.de , July 17, 2014.
259. ↑ Julian Hans: Russian TV station LifeNews - servant of his master. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 22, 2014.
260. ↑ Ополченцы сообщили о сбитом Ан-26 на востоке Украины . In: LifeNews , July 17, 2014.
261. ↑ Eastern Ukraine: According to eyewitnesses, military aircraft shot down again ( memento from July 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Russian State Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of Russia, July 17, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2015.
262. ↑ Crash in Ukraine: "It was the guys from the Chernuchin roadblock". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 18, 2014.
263. ↑ «Why did they fly here? It's war.". In: Tages-Anzeiger , July 18, 2014.
264. ↑ Distance according to Google Earth from Jenakijewo to Rossypne, flight route according to Flightradar24
265. ↑ Бес отверг обвинения в уничтожении «Боинга». In: Lenta.ru , July 18, 2014.
266. ↑ Konrad Schuller: Eastern Ukraine: Separatists at the launch site should arrest pilots. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 22, 2014.
267. ↑ Exclusive: Ukraine rebel commander acknowledges fighters had BUK missile. Reuters . 23rd July 2014.
268. ↑ Separatist leader denies statements about "Buk". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 24, 2014.
269. ↑ Bert Lanting: Wij hadden raket, maar haalden MH17 niet neer. In: de Volkskrant , November 4, 2014.
270. ↑ Separatists admit possession of anti-aircraft missiles. In: Die Presse , November 4, 2014.
271. ↑ MH17 crash: FT photo shows signs of damage from missile strike. on ft.com, July 21, 2014, accessed September 19, 2014.
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272. ↑ Experts see evidence of missile hits. In: Spiegel Online , July 22, 2014.
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273. ↑ ^{a b} Russian chief developer of the Su-25 "MH17 not shot down by fighter jet". In: tagesschau.de. March 10, 2015, accessed March 11, 2015 . 
274. ↑ US Officials Say They Suspect SA-11 or SA-20 Missiles Brought Down Malaysia Jet, The New York Times. July 17, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 . 
275. ↑ Experts analyze photos. In: orf.at , July 22, 2014, accessed on July 30, 2014.
276. ↑ US scrambles to determine who fired Russian-made missile at jet . In: reuters.com , July 19, 2014, accessed September 10, 2014.
277. ↑ Russia demands evidence against separatists. In: Spiegel Online , July 24, 2014.
278. ↑ MH017 mostly likely downed by Russian-backed separatists. In: IHS Jane's 360 , July 20, 2014, accessed July 30, 2014.
279. ↑ Shaun Walker: The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past , Oxford University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0-19-065926-4 , Chapter 11, Section III
280. ↑ Shaun Walker: Ukrainians report sightings of missile launcher on day of MH17 crash. In: The Guardian . July 22, 2014.
281. ↑ Julian Borger & Josh Halliday: MH17: missile launcher was in towns near crash site, videos suggest. In: The Guardian , July 20, 2014.
282. ↑ MH17 crash: These pictures are supposed to show the Buk missile system. The world . July 21, 2014 (video; 1:48 min).
283. ^ Alfred de Montesquiou: Crash du MH17 - Un camion volé pour transporter le lance missiles. In: Paris Match . July 25, 2014, updated July 29, 2014.
284. ↑ Yuras Karmanau & Peter Leonard: What happened? The day Flight 17 was downed. In: Associated Press . July 25, 2014.
285. ↑ Бойовики вивозять ракетний комплекс "БУК" до кордону із РФ. In: YouTube . July 18, 2014.
286. ↑ Eliot Higgins: Caught in a Lie - Compelling Evidence Russia Lied About the Buk Linked to MH17. In: Bellingcat , July 24, 2014. (English)
287. ↑ ^{a b} Bastian Berbner: The track of the rocket launcher. In: The time . , No. 47, November 13, 2014.
288. ↑ Charlotte Mcdonald-Gibson: MH17 crash report: Clues mounting into cause, but answers are few. In: The Independent . September 9, 2014.
289. ↑ MH17: Origin of the Separatists Buk - A Bellingcat Inquiry. on bellingcat.com, November 2014 (PDF).
290. ↑ Ополченцы ДНР взяли под контроль воинскую часть ПВО с зенитно-ракетными комплексами "Бук". TASS , June 29, 2014.
291. ^ Donetsk militia takes control of Ukrainian anti-air installation. In: The Voice of Russia , June 29, 2014.
292. ^ Separatist leader rejects report on "Buk" possession , dpa, July 24, 2014
293. ↑ Separatist commander denies BUK possession ( Memento from July 1, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
294. ↑ Margaret Coker, Andam Entous, Robert Wall & Alan Cullison: USA see connection of Russia to the downing of MH17. In: The Wall Street Journal , July 20, 2014.
295. ↑ Brooks Tigner: NATO officials believe missile attack behind MH17 crash. In: IHS Jane's 360 , July 17, 2014.
296. ↑ Julia Bast: Crash MH-17: How do surface-to-air missiles work? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 18, 2014.
297. ↑ BND blames separatists for the MH17 crash. In: Die Zeit , October 19, 2014.
298. ↑ ^{a b} Marcus Bensmann, Cordt Schnibben , David Crawford: Who shot why. In: Spiegel Online , Cooperation Der Spiegel , Algemeen Dagblad , CORRECT! V , January 9, 2015 ( multimedia documentation for the print article in Spiegel and for separate information on correctiv.org ).
299. ↑ Who shot why? In: Spiegel TV Magazin from January 11, 2015 (video, 9 minutes)
300. ^ Daniel Romein: Is this the Launch Site of the Missile that Shot Down Flight MH17? A Look at the Claims and Evidence. In: bellingcat.com , January 27, 2015.
301. ↑ MH17 crash: My revealing fragments from east Ukraine. BBC News, April 16, 2015, accessed April 16, 2015 . 
302. ↑ Russian arms producer ready to stage experiment to prove Buk-M1 missile hit flight MH17. TASS, June 2, 2015; "Bear unmistakable traces of fragments from a Buk-M1 air defense missile (9M38M1)"
303. ↑ Russian President Putin blames Malaysian plane tragedy on Ukraine, CNBC. July 17, 2014, accessed July 17, 2014 . 
304. ↑ Also Saroschtschenske (Russian Saroschtschenskoje) was with a margin of 6-7 km in the zone controlled by the DNR. Novaya Gazeta June 16, 2015.
305. ↑ MH17-rapport is ommekeer in Russian standpunt. (Dutch), NOS, May 8, 2015.
306. ↑ BILD exposes false satellite image. Picture, May 8, 2015.
307. ↑ The missile flew from the northeast and exploded on a collision course. Novaya Gazeta, May 18, 2015.
308. ↑ Hoe onderzocht RTL Nieuws de nieuwe MH17-foto's? RTL, June 5, 2015.
309. ↑ NZZ, October 14, 2015, front page
310. ^ Examining the Evidence of Russia's Involvement in a Malaysia Airlines Crash. In: Stratfor . Retrieved May 17, 2016 . 
311. ↑ Daniel Wechlin: New report on the shooting down of MH17: The trail to Russia becomes clearer. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 24, 2016.
     Oliver Kühn: Shooting down MH17: “The Russian leadership is to blame”. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 24, 2016.
     Julian Hans: Crash of MH 17: Fewer and fewer suspects. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 25, 2016.
     Bellingcat: MH17 - Potential Suspects and Witnesses from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. (PDF).
312. ↑ MH17 - Russian GRU Commander 'Orion' Identified as Oleg Ivannikov bellingcat.com from May 25, 2018
313. ^ Bellingcat Forensic Analysis of Satellite Images by the Russian Defense Ministry. Analysis of the Russian picture number 5 from page 19 and page 29; In addition, the picture was published on the “KAVKAZPRESS.RU” blog before the Ministry of Defense published it
314. ↑ 10 more questions Russian military pose to Ukraine, US over MH17 crash. In: RT . July 21, 2014, updated July 23, 2014.
315. ↑ Group portrait against a background of petunias , Novaya Gazeta, July 17, 2018
316. ↑ SSU: so called 'Russian evidence' of the terrorist attack in the sky over Donetsk is a great fake (video). ( Memento of September 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on sbu.gov.ua, July 30, 2014, accessed on September 13, 2014.
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317. ↑ Report on MH17 crash. Russia is said to have falsified photos. In: tagesschau.de from June 1, 2015.
318. ^ MH17 - Forensic Analysis of Satellite Images Released by the Russian Ministry of Defense. In: bellingcat.com of May 31, 2015.
319. ^ Forensic analysis of satellite images of the Russian Ministry of Defense. (PDF) Bellingcat, accessed June 2, 2015 . 
320. ^ Benjamin Bidder: Satellite images: Bellingcat operates coffee grounds reading. In: Spiegel Online , June 3, 2015 (interview with Jens Kriese).
321. ↑ New July 17th Satellite Imagery Confirms Russia Produced Fake MH17 Evidence. Bellingcat, June 12, 2015.
322. ↑ ^{a b} Ukrainian fighter jet is said to have flown towards MH17. In: zeit.de , July 21, 2014, accessed on September 11, 2014.
323. ↑ ^{a b c} US analysts conclude MH17 downed by aircraft. In: nst.com.my , August 7, 2014, accessed September 11, 2014.
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324. ↑ Fragments of the Buk missile could be found in the bodies of the pilots. , RIA Novosti. September 10, 2014, accessed September 16, 2014.
325. ↑ MH17-guilt question is answered with silence. In: welt.de , September 6, 2014, accessed on September 11, 2014.
326. ↑ Investigating MH17. CBC interview with Michael Bociurkiw on YouTube, July 28, 2014, accessed on August 13, 2014. From 6:00 min.
327. ↑ Flight MH17 unlikely shot down by fighter jets: Hishammuddin. NST August 9, 2014; "Hence, he advised the people not to be easily influenced by speculation and rumors being spread in the media social."
328. ↑ nst.com.my en.ria.ru .
329. ↑ “My book was used for investigations” , Novaya Gazeta, November 4, 2020
330. ↑ JIT: Flight MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile from a farmland near Pervomaiskyi Dutch Law Enforcement Agency , September 28, 2016
331. ↑ MH17: Dutch criminal investigation results ready Sept. 28. nltimes.nl, August 22, 2016
332. ↑ "Almas-Antei" announced information about the traffic situation in the area of ​​the crash MH17. RIA, September 22, 2016
333. ↑ The Netherlands explained the lack of a guided missile on the radar images during the disaster with the Boeing-777 , Novaya Gazeta, April 3, 2018
334. ↑ om.nl ( Memento from May 1, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Radar experts confirm previous conclusion of the JIT, JIT, April 3, 2018
335. ^ ^{A b} Fiona Hill , Clifford G. Gaddy: Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin Geopolitics in the 21st Century, Brookings Institution Press, 2015 ISBN 978-0-8157-2618-0 , page 391; "A barrage of propaganda and misinformation to confuse the issue, saw doubt and deflect attention away from who might actually have shot down the plane and why"
336. ↑ The Guardian view on Russian propaganda: the truth is out there. The Guardian, March 2, 2015; "Confuse those who would seek out the truth with multiple expressions of distracting PR chaff."
337. ↑ Most People Are Naive , TAZ, July 27, 2015; "The aim is to signal: There is no truth, everything is possible."
338. ↑ MH17: vast majority of Russians believe Ukraine downed plane, poll finds. at www.theguardian.com, July 30, 2014, accessed July 9, 2014.
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339. ↑ Last independent television show canceled in Russia ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), AFP, August 3, 2014, accessed on August 20, 2014; Archive version of October 6, 2014.
340. ↑ Russian TV stops last independent broadcast. In: Spiegel Online , August 2, 2014.
     "Вместе с самолетом разбилась последняя программа, которая могла себе позвокить сеяте-нените нените нените наните нените нените нените нените небе позвокить сеяте-нените нените небе с самолетом разбилась последняя программа , 2 August 2014 . ("Together with the plane, the last program that could afford to sow some doubts crashed") In: slon.ru , August 4, 2014, accessed on September 20, 2014.
341. ↑ Journalist: USA have evidence of Boeing downing by the Ukrainian military. on de.ria.ru, July 22, 2014, accessed September 10, 2014.
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342. ↑ Failure in anti-aircraft exercise in Ukraine as the cause of the Boeing accident? from de.ria.ru, July 25, 2014, accessed September 10, 2014.
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343. ↑ Russian Union Of Engineers Point To Ukraine Airforce As Responsible For MH17 Crash. ( Memento from September 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: ibtimes.com , September 19, 2014, accessed on September 19, 2014.
344. ↑ Russia's Channel One show satellite photo evidencing MH17 was downed by fighter jet. TASS. November 14, 2014, accessed November 15, 2014.
345. ↑ Russian bloggers expose MH17 image as a fake. In: Die Welt , November 15, 2014, accessed on November 15, 2014.
346. ↑ Russia says MH17 was shot down by plane missiles. In: telegraph.co.uk , November 14, 2014, accessed November 15, 2014.
347. ↑ Russian State Television Shares Fake Images of MH17 Being Attacked. In: Bellingcat , November 14, 2014, accessed November 15, 2014.
348. ↑ The General Director of Channel One confirmed an error in the coverage of the Malaysian Boeing MH17 shot down over the Donbass , Novaya Gazeta, December 11, 2019
349. ↑ Russia's propaganda machine revs up ahead of UN's MH17 vote , kyivpost.com, July 29, 2015.
350. ↑ Putin reminded Oliver Stone of the "Spanish dispatcher" when he answered the question about the crash of MH17 , Doschd , August 31, 2017; “As far as I know, immediately after this terrible disaster, one of the Ukrainian air traffic controllers, I mean a specialist of Spanish origin, announced that he had seen a fighter plane in the flight corridor of the civil aircraft. There was no possibility of a fighting machine other than a Ukrainian, ”Putin told Stone during a conversation on July 4, 2015.
351. ^ Catch Carlos If You Can , RFERL, March 18, 2018
352. ↑ Russia calls for an independent investigation , Handelsblatt, June 6, 2015.
353. ↑ NZZ front page, October 14, 2014.
354. ↑ 'Deny, distract and blame': how Russia fights propaganda war , The Guardian, May 3, 2018.
355. ↑ How MH17 Gave Birth to the Modern Russian Spin Machine , Foreignpolicy , September 29, 2016; "A veritable case study" ... "the discrediting of all those who claimed that Russia had played some part in the attack"
356. ↑ Peter Pomerantsev, author of the book “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible” on Echo der Zeit : Russian Propaganda II: Not facts count, but emotions , SRF.ch, March 27, 2014, minute 2:30
357. ↑ Terrorists and militants planned cynical terrorist attack at Aeroflot civil aircraft. ( Memento from September 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) The Security Service of Ukraine. August 7, 2014.
358. ↑ Will Stewart: MH17 rebels meant to down Aeroflot plane… to justify invasion: Astonishing claim by respected head of Ukraine intelligence service. In: Daily Mail , August 9, 2014, updated August 10, 2014.
359. ↑ Full flight history for Aeroflot flight SU2074. on flightradar24.com, accessed on September 12, 2014. Archive ( memento from September 20, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) from September 20, 2014.
360. ↑ Reports that Putin flew similar route as MH17, presidential airport says 'hasn't overflown Ukraine for long time' . In: RT International . ( rt.com [accessed May 29, 2018]).
361. ↑ Interfax explains Putin about the target of the Ukraine missile , Die Welt, July 18, 2014
362. ↑ Putin's interpretation of the MH17 accident , Die Zeit, July 18, 2014
363. ^ Former separatist criticizes pro-Russian forces , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 14, 2017, p. 5
364. ↑ Is the Cold Economic War coming now? at www.zeit.de, July 24, 2014, accessed on July 25, 2014.
365. ↑ Malaysia Airlines said Sunday that it will retire the flight number MH17 for the route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. CNN, July 19, 2014, accessed July 19, 2014.
366. ↑ Sascha Zastiral: Malaysia Airlines disappears from the stock exchange. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 8, 2014.
367. ↑ Saturday, August 9th 3:40 PM GMT +0800 Media Statement 14: MH17 Incident. from www.malaysiaairlines.com, August 9, 2014, accessed August 9, 2014.
368. ↑ MH17 victims' families face lengthy battle for compensation. on theguardian.com, October 14, 2014, accessed October 15, 2014.
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370. ↑ 'Er is alleen de harde realiteit van 298 doden'. on nu.nl, November 10, 2014, last accessed on November 11, 2014. The
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371. ↑ MH17: Netherlands inaugurate memorial for victims - SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved July 18, 2017, from spiegel.de .
372. ↑ "Flight MH17: Processing in the Netherlands - 'We will turn every stone'". Accessed July 17, 2017. deutschlandfunk.de .
373. ^ "MH17 catastrophe: 298 trees for 298 victims | tagesschau.de". Accessed July 17, 2017. tagesschau.de .
374. ↑ spiegel.de: A memorial for MH17.