Netherlands commemorates 10th anniversary of MH17 disaster
Today marks the 10th anniversary of passenger flight MH17 getting shot down in Ukraine. The Netherlands will commemorate the disaster and the 298 people killed in various ways. The official commemoration will be held at the National MH17 monument in Vijfhuizen Park near Schiphol. Flags are hanging at half-mast in many municipalities.
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 took off from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia at 12:30 p.m. on 17 July 2014. Almost three hours after takeoff, the Boeing 777 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed, including 196 Dutch people.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) determined that the passenger plane was shot down by a Russian BUK missile fired by pro-Russian separatists from a field in Ukraine.
In November 2022, the court in The Hague sentenced rebel leader Igor Girkin, his right-hand man Sergei Dubinsky, and garrison commander Leonid Chartshenko to life in prison for their role in the downing of flight MH17. The fourth suspect, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted. They were the first suspects identified by the JIT. According to the JIT, they played crucial roles in bringing the BUK TELAR mobile launcher to the field where it shot down MH17 and then removed it again.
The court believes that the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was a mistake by pro-Russian separatists. The assumption is that they did not intend to shoot down a passenger plane but mistook it for a military aircraft.
The JIT also concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin played an active role in supplying weapons to eastern Ukraine, which led to the downing of flight MH17. The Netherlands and Australia have filed a case holding Russia liable for the damages resulting from the MH17 disaster.
The national commemoration in Vijfhuizen will start at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday. About 1,500 people will attend, including the loved ones of the victims, King Willem-Alexander, various Dutch Cabinet members like Prime Minister Dick Schoof, and representatives from Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Ukraine. The names of all 298 victims will be read, followed by two minutes of silence.
Earlier this year, the Court of Audit reported that the Netherlands had, thus far, spent 166 million euros on the aftermath of the MH17 disaster. This includes expenditure on crisis management, repatriation of the victims, the investigation into the perpetrators, and bringing them to justice, among many other things.
