MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - A UN body has found that Russia was responsible for the deadly downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine amid the armed conflict between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian military forces on 2014 July 17.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew members from 17 nationalities were killed. They included 196 Dutch citizens, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australian citizens or residents.
The council of the International Civil Aviation Organization voted on Monday that Russia failed to uphold its obligations under international air law which requires that States 'refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.'
The case was brought by the Netherlands and Australia.
'This represents the first time in ICAO's history that its Council has made a determination on the merits of a dispute between Member States under the Organization's dispute settlement mechanism,' the UN agency said.
The Netherlands established a Joint Investigation Team in August 2014 together with Australia, Malaysia and Belgium, as well as Ukraine.
The JIT determined that flight MH17 was shot down by a missile launched from a Buk TELAR installation that was transported from Russia to a farm field in eastern Ukraine in an area controlled by separatists.
In November 2022, a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian for murder. They were tried in absentia and sentenced to life in prison.
That same year, the Netherlands and Australia launched the case with ICAO.
It centered on allegations that Russia's conduct in the downing of the aircraft by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine constituted a breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
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