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Victims from flight MH17 are transported along a Dutch highway (photo: Ministerie van Defensie)
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Victims from flight MH17 are transported along a Dutch highway (photo: Ministerie van Defensie)
Friday, 17 July 2015 - 08:51
MH17 memorialized in eastern Ukraine
Today exactly a year a go Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed down on eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers aboard. The people of the Ukraine will be memorializing the victims today.
In a field next to the eastern Ukrainian village of Grabovo, where last year a massive fire raged after the plane's engines and fuel tanks crashed down, a small monument has been set up, Het Parool reports. A white pot of flowers, a candle and a few stuffed animals lying on a bar in the grass. "Now a year later, here we remember the terrible explosion, the terrible fire and the fear and horror in everyone who came running to the crash site" Grabovo chief Vladimir Berezjnoj wrote last week in a letter to all Dutch.
Grabovo will hold its own memorial. "Each year we have a service to pry for victims of war", the village priest Father Sergej Barachtenko said to the newspaper. This service is always held on July 17th, the day that the Russian imperial family was murdered in 1918. In the church the focus will mostly be on the imperial family. "But this year we will have a special ceremony at the crash site." the Father said. "These people are victims of this war. I therefore want to make a tradition from this commemoration, absolutely."
There will also be a memorial in neighboring town Rozsipnoje. At the simple wooden cross that was placed where the cockpit landed. "That's a tradition in the Ukraine if people died", former mayor Oleg Mirosjnitsjenko said. "It is a simple monument, but here too people need a place to remember and lay down flowers and toys."
In the Netherlands the flags on all the main buildings will hang at half mast today, in memory of the terrible loss the Netherlands suffered on this day last year. Ceremonies for the relatives of the victims have been arranged in Hilversum and in Nieuwegein, NU reports. These ceremonies will be taking place behind closed doors.
A total of 1,600 family member are expected to attend the ceremony in Nieuwegein. This meeting was organized by the families themselves, with support from Stichting Vliegramp MH17. The ceremony will be held between 2:00 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. in the NBC Congress Center. Prime Minister Mark Rutte will speak on behalf of the government, according to Omroep Brabant. The rest of the program is for and by the surviviors. They will give speeches, make music and dance. All the names of the victims will also be read.
Departure hall 3 at Schiphol Airport has been prepared as a special commemoration place for today. This commemoration area is open to anyone who wish to visit.