Russia marked the twelfth anniversary of the downing by a Russian BUK missile of Malaysian airliner MH17 over occupied Donetsk oblast on 17 July with a ‘dance performance’ on the very place in 2014 where the Boeing came down. This was, as usual, accompanied by attempts to shift the blame for the killing that day of 298 passengers and crew, including 80 children. The lies were less brazen than those on the tenth anniversary, but they would be unwise to dismiss. Moscow, doubtless, understood from the outset that all of the evidence was against it and that any single ‘alternative version’ would be knocked down. it opted instead for multiple claims, however absurd, with the aim being to spread the idea that there were alternative explanations, all somehow worthy of consideration.
The so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [‘DPR]] propaganda sites have mastered this approach perfectly. Even the memorial is a lie, with the words reading “In memory of the 298 innocent victims of the civil war”. Any remembrance events gloss over the fact that Russia and the ‘DPR’ militants obstructed even international rescue and recovery efforts. The tasteless video of a young man supposedly in pilot uniform and young woman in white dancing on the site of the catastrophe is accompanied by manipulatively chosen apparent news excerpts. In one place, you hear the words “Ukraine said that its armed forces “, in another words fleeting appear on the screen claiming that at the moment of the disaster, a grey aeroplane appeared nearby. All of this is too quick for a viewer to stop and consider critically but aimed at being remembered. When, therefore, the Russian-installed ‘minister of youth policy’, Denys Shymanovsky, claims that the video represents “the voice of a generation which remembers. And retains the truth – about who is responsible but has not admitted this after 12 years”, it is clear who the reader is intended – erroneously – to blame. Two years ago, the reports were even more brazen, with Denys Pushilin, Russian-appointed ‘DPR leader’ claiming that with the downing of MH17 “the criminal Kyiv regime had demonstrated the international scale of its terrorist face”, etc. etc.
There was silence in 2025, probably because of two damning rulings, one from the UN’s Civil Aviation Organization, the other from the European Court of Human Rights. Both confirmed that Russia was responsible for the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 over occupied Donetsk oblast on 17 July 2014. The findings were essentially the same as those reached by the Joint Investigation Team [JIT], formed by the Netherlands; Australia; Belgium; Malaysia and Ukraine and by the Dutch Prosecutor, and cited by the Dutch Court which sentenced, in absentia, two Russians and one Ukrainian, to life imprisonment for their part in the transporting of a Russian BUK missile launcher to occupied Donetsk oblast and its use in shooting down MH17.
It is Russia that has continued to deny the undeniable, and to cause even further pain to the families of the victims of MH17. The reason for the Joint Investigation Team was that Russia had used its power of veto to block an international UN investigation into the disaster. It constantly obstructed the work of the Dutch prosecutors, including through its removal, first to Russia, and then to occupied Donbas, of a key MH17 witness, Volodymyr Tsemakh, in order to prevent him speaking with the Dutch prosecutors.
That this is all deliberate cannot be seriously questioned. Within minutes of the downing of MH17, Russian state propaganda channels followed the Russian / Russian-controlled ‘DPR’ militants, in boasting that the latter had downed a Ukrainian military plane and showing the footage of what turned out to be the burning wreckage of MH17. Through that evening, the footage disappeared, as did as many of the original reports as could be deleted.
Over the next two days, Russian Internet trolls, financed by a billionaire with links to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, posted at least 65 thousand tweets trying to blame Ukraine for the disaster, with this breaking all records in Twitter activity.
Russia failed at international level, with courts and international investigators confirming a ‘smoking gun’ trail leading directly to the Kremlin. The trouble with those facts is that they tend to be reported at the time, but seldom again, unlike Russia’s brazen rehashing, time and time again of lies.
For details of proven findings, see:
Three life sentences and confirmation that Russia should be on trial for the shooting down of MH17
