The debris of 298 people, many of them children, lies scattered across sunflower fields alongside the wreckage of one of the most modern aircraft flying today. The place is eastern Ukraine. The date is July 17, 2014. This disaster would later be known as the deadliest shootdown of a civilian airliner by a military missile in aviation history.
This is all that remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, its crew, and its passengers. In the months that followed, every time victims were identified, my wife’s sister was found almost intact. But their son was found in scattered pieces. And each time, the police came to tell us exactly what they had found.
We don’t know precisely what led to the misidentification of this aircraft. How did they not notice it was a civilian plane? It should have been so easy to tell. From the very first day of the MH17 shootdown, a long road began.
It was a slow, painstaking process to find evidence that could be used in court. The entire Dutch nation demanded not just the truth, but justice as well. There was immense pressure to find evidence that would hold up in court. Dutch investigators were able to use the parts they brought back from Ukraine to piece together what had happened.
The wreckage told a clear story, but the investigators had to draw their own conclusions. You feel supported, and that was very important to us. We had to wait a long time before the prosecutors filed charges against the four suspects. The relatives of the victims were incredibly patient.
And I think it’s remarkable that they have every right to be angry, yet they show so much dignity. This animation, produced by the Dutch Safety Board, illustrates what prosecutors allege happened. The plane was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile. First, the pattern of holes in the fuselage above the cockpit told investigators that a missile had exploded.
A hail of shrapnel, some round and some butterfly-shaped, pierced the cockpit, likely killing the pilot and co-pilot instantly. So it was easy to assume the shrapnel was propelled into the aircraft by the explosion. The blast itself would have sent shockwaves through the airframe. Since the structure was built mostly of rigid, light carbon-based composite materials, it would have cracked and broken rather than bent, tearing the cockpit away from the cabin.
At that point, the airframe would have been subjected to loads greater than it was designed to withstand. The wings and tail section would have separated as the plane entered a spin. At 33,000 feet, the decompression would have killed the passengers almost immediately. Ukrainian military aircraft could have been flying that day.
They were allowed to, of course, because it was their airspace. But as far as we know, there were no Ukrainian aircraft near Flight MH17. Radar data later confirmed that as well. From the very first day of the MH17 shootdown, Russia began blaming Ukraine and fabricating every possible narrative about it.
Realizing that fake news would spread widely, we launched a strong campaign in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other international institutions—first to spread the truth and factual information about what happened, and to accuse the Russian Federation of being strongly connected to the deaths of hundreds of people on board. What kind of missile could have destroyed the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777? It was almost certainly not an infrared-guided missile, which typically hits the engines and doesn’t produce the shrapnel spray that was found. A semi-active radar-guided missile also uses a warhead.
It’s also logical to assume the Ukrainian air force had a stockpile of Soviet-era missiles. However, if it were a medium-range 9M317 or 318 missile from a Buk M1 or M2 system, or another variant of surface-to-air missile systems, it would also have a proximity fuse activated by semi-active radar. A much more powerful weapon. Shoulder-launched missiles can only reach a maximum altitude of 4 kilometers.
Flight MH17 was flying at approximately 10,000 meters—10 kilometers. A group of amateur and professional researchers, calling themselves Bellingcat, began examining hours of videos and photos on social media, some of which had been posted on Russian social networks by boastful soldiers. It was very natural for soldiers to post pictures of their military service at that time. They mostly used VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, which are somewhat like Russian versions of Facebook.
In the months before this disaster, we had already found many Russian soldiers posting pictures of themselves in Ukraine, even though they were part of a secret mission. They simply never expected people to find them. The sheer number of photos posted by Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians on social networks helped identify the missile launch site. Once the images and clips were collected, Bellingcat investigators matched them to actual locations using Google Maps and satellite data.
They were able to trace the path of the Buk missile system they believe shot down the plane. They prepared a map and presented it to Dutch officials, who began verifying what the Bellingcat volunteers had suggested and created this animation of what was happening in Ukraine in the hours before the MH17 crash. The powerful Buk missile system, with four missiles on an independent launch platform, was driving along the roads of Donetsk. Well, it started in Kursk, at the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, in the Russian city of Kursk.
From there, the entire system was transported, moving within a large military convoy to the border with Ukraine. From there, it began moving through Ukrainian territory. The system was first seen by a witness on the morning of July 17 in the town of Yenakiieve. Then it headed to Donetsk, the largest city under separatist control.
From there, it drove through Zuhres and Torez, all the way to Snizhne. South of Snizhne, the system finally settled. It started with the report from the Malaysian transport council, which told us it was a Russian Buk missile launched from an area controlled by separatists and, to some extent, also by the Russians. That was a huge shock for us.
How can a civilized country do such things? Later, information emerged that the Buk system was actually Russian. It came from Russia. It was handed over at the Russian border to Ukraine.
In the days before the loss of Flight MH17, two Ukrainian aircraft had been shot down by separatist anti-aircraft missiles. There was a big difference between a Boeing 777 flying at high altitude and the military planes the separatists had targeted. Who ordered the attack, and who facilitated it? Along with the phone call recorded by Ukrainian intelligence of the first armed man to arrive at the crash site, a picture emerged of a Russian-made missile launched from a mobile unit somewhere inside the self-declared Donbas republic.
A claim strongly denied by both the republic itself and Russia. We were able to see many details about this Buk missile system. At first, we had very little material to make this comparison, but later, more detailed videos and high-resolution photos began to appear. There are many unique marks that can be distinguished on this missile system, such as a small piece of paint on the side indicating the number, the unit number, and some specific damage on the side.
That’s what made it distinct from other missile systems of the same type. A Buk system can also operate independently, using its own radar to identify the target and launch the missile. The colonel in charge of the unit apparently did not consult other radar stations and acted on his own initiative. The final decision was made by the person operating this missile system.
Usually, under normal circumstances, that would be someone with the rank of colonel, and he would normally have to report this decision to central command. But as far as we know, there was no such central command. This missile system was also operating alone, without a secondary radar system. So the officer inside the missile system itself was the one who decided to shoot it down.
We don’t know what kind of information they received. It’s up to the Ukrainian government to decide whether the entire situation was a war or a war-like state, and whether flying over this territory was prohibited. If someone were to come forward now and say the Donetsk government could have declared it a no-fly conflict zone, the Ukrainian government would certainly have intervened because it still claims full sovereignty over that airspace. This can also be seen in the fact that it still provides air traffic control for that airspace.
We don’t know exactly what led to the misidentification of this aircraft. How did they not notice it was a civilian plane? It should have been so easy to tell. I mean, we could see exactly where civilian planes were flying via Flightradar24.
So if they had only had access to that site or been in contact with someone, that would have been enough. But also, this missile system, as far as I know, should have had radar information showing it was a civilian plane. We want to know what happened. Why did it happen?
And who is responsible—not just who pressed the button, but who was ultimately in charge. And you know, the four suspects on trial now won’t serve time, even if convicted, they won’t go to prison. For me, that’s not the most important thing. I think the most important thing is that the world knows who was responsible—not just because we want justice, but because we want to prevent this from happening again.
It must never happen again. Then investigators found the closest thing to conclusive evidence. A piece of the Buk missile was found in the fields near the wreckage, and these butterfly-shaped fragments are a distinctive feature of Buk missiles. How did investigators trace the system that shot down Flight MH17?
Social media photos show the same paint on the side of the missile as it was transported from its base in Kursk, deep inside Russia, to its position in Donbas. The Buk launch platform, or combat vehicle, left the city of Donetsk, carried on a white Volvo truck at 11:00 a. m. Ukrainian time.
At that moment, the passengers of Flight MH17 were finishing their check-in procedures. The Buk missile system was unloaded from the truck and moved independently to the launch point near Snizhne at around 1:00 p. m. local time.
Half an hour before Flight MH17 took off. Investigators turned to intelligence sources for more information. If this was the missile that shot down Flight MH17, a number of people could be charged as suspects. At the time, Ukraine didn’t know exactly which individuals were responsible.
They knew it was shot down from separatist-controlled territory using a Buk platform, but they didn’t know which group operated the system. The conversation that followed—they seemed stunned because they truly believed they had shot down a Sukhoi. Just like the day before. But they were so convinced that they kept assuring themselves they had shot down such a plane.
And that this Sukhoi, in turn, had shot down Flight MH17. The painstaking work of the Joint Investigation Team was now bearing fruit. Not only was the dynamics of the incident identified, but also the missile used to shoot down the plane. Despite attempts by Russian officials to spread doubt and misinformation.
Certainly, they wanted to hide any evidence that could link the Russian and separatist sides to the shootdown, because they immediately wanted to blame Ukraine. And to hide evidence of Russian involvement, because it was a Russian missile system. This is not just evidence of a war crime on the Russian side, but it also shows that the entire uprising in eastern Ukraine was orchestrated by Russia. It was led by them.
Documents proved that all the professionals handling the missile complexes, large or small, were Russian specialists. So some roles, like drivers—like Tsemakh—and others, were at the lowest levels of involvement by local residents in Donbas. But the crucial and key roles were played by Russian military professionals. By July 2019, the Joint Investigation Team had identified four men directly involved in the mass murder.
Igor Girkin served as Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People’s Republic. So Igor Girkin was the leader of the separatist movement at that time. His involvement wasn’t direct in coordinating the transport operation that day, as far as we know. But based on the available objections, he was always pushing to have such a missile system in the separatist-controlled territories of Ukraine to shoot down Ukrainian aircraft.
Sergei Dubinsky was the head of military intelligence in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Oleg Pulatov is accused of accompanying the Buk missile platform. The fourth man, Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, had his phone conversations intercepted. Sergei Dubinsky was the commander of a separatist military intelligence unit.
They created this unit in Ukraine. Like Girkin, he is also a Russian citizen. He is the person who actually received this missile system. His forces coordinated the entire transport operation.
The other two individuals—one a Ukrainian citizen, Kharchenko, and the other Oleg Pulatov, a Russian citizen—were the ones actually with the launch platform, standing next to it and organizing the security of the system at the launch site. While the trial against the three Russian and one Ukrainian defendants is a criminal case, the German citizens of Russian descent who retained Heiko van Schyndel and Professor Elmar Giemulla are suing Ukraine in a civil court. We are pursuing our case before the European Court. We are handling our case before the European Court of Human Rights as a single, sole procedure.
We are also not coordinating with the Dutch government or other prosecutors before the Court of Justice because we filed our claim solely from the perspective of aviation law. While the other pending lawsuits, as well as the one filed by the Netherlands itself, are more oriented toward criminal prosecution. On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 took off from Tehran airport bound for Kyiv when it was shot down by two anti-aircraft missiles accidentally fired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It was just the latest in a series of civilian planes accidentally shot down by militaries.
In 1987, Iran Air Flight 655, carrying 290 people, was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile fired by the US Navy from the guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes, which mistook the airliner for an incoming missile. In 1980, Itavia Flight 870, carrying 81 people, was brought down by friendly fire during what was suspected to be an aerial engagement between Libyan planes and NATO aircraft over the Italian island of Ustica. Away from the political interests of warring factions, the world’s civilian air corridors remain constantly threatened by the armies of states that lack competence or training, and that have lost control of their soldiers on the ground and in the air. Civilian aircraft will remain unpredictable targets in conflicts around the world until the rules and regulations governing the crossing of airspace change.
Until then, Flight MH17 remains a painful reminder of the risks ordinary people face every day when they board an international flight that may, unbeknownst to them, fly over highly dangerous conflict zones.
