ICAO recognized Russia as responsible for the crash of flight MH17 over Ukraine

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has officially recognized Russia as responsible for the MH17 flight disaster over Ukraine in 2014.

This was reported by the government of the Netherlands.

According to the statement, the Russian Federation violated the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation through its actions, specifically the provision prohibiting the use of weapons against civilian aircraft in flight.

In the coming weeks, the ICAO Council will consider how Russia should compensate for the damage.

The complaint against Russia to ICAO was filed in March 2022 by Australia and the Netherlands, whose citizens made up the majority of those killed in the crash. In June 2024, Russia announced that it was ceasing participation in the consideration of the complaint, as it does not recognize ICAO's competence in this matter.

The Joint Investigation Team, which included representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, concluded that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a "Buk" surface-to-air missile system that had been brought from Russia shortly before. A court in the Netherlands in November 2022 sentenced in absentia the former "Minister of Defense" of the so-called DPR Igor Strelkov and two other individuals to life imprisonment on charges of deliberate destruction of the aircraft and premeditated murder. One other defendant in the case was acquitted.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014. As a result, 298 people died, making this air disaster one of the ten deadliest in history by number of victims.