The Netherlands has spent 209.8 million euros on MH17 aftermath

The Netherlands has spent a total of 209.8 million euros dealing with the consequences of the 2014 downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine. Data from the Court of Audit show this amount is more than 11 million euros higher than the previous year.

The data runs through the end of 2024. Last year, most of the funds were spent on “international legal procedures and diplomacy, criminal prosecution, and victim identification.”

A Malaysia Airlines flight was brought down by a Buk missile on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine in territory held by pro-Russian rebels. The aircraft had taken off from Schiphol and was heading to Malaysia. All 298 people on board died, including 196 Dutch citizens.

Among other efforts, the Netherlands and Australia took a case against Russia to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which in May held Russia responsible for the plane’s downing. The European Court of Human Rights reached the same conclusion in July.

Additional spending by the government went to the National MH17 Memorial in Vijfhuizen, Haarlemmermeer, to remembrance events, and to compensation for the families of the victims. The Netherlands expects Russia to ultimately cover these expenses.

In 2022, a court in The Hague handed life sentences in absentia to separatist leader Igor Girkin, his deputy Sergei Dubinsky, and garrison commander Leonid Kharchenko. The fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, second-in-command of the rebels’ intelligence service in eastern Ukraine under Dubinsky, was acquitted.