UN agency finds Russia responsible for downing flight MH17 in 2014

The Netherlands and Australia brought the case against Russia before the Montreal-based global aviation agency in 2022.

The United Nations' aviation agency has found Russia guilty of downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 while it flew over Ukraine in July 2014.A total of 298 passengers onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed in the incident, among them 196 Dutch citizens and 38 Australian citizens and residents. The governments of the Netherlands and Australia brought the case against Moscow before the Montreal-based Global Aviation Agency in 2022. They could not bring it to the International Court of Justice as Russia doesn't recognise the court's jurisdiction.In 2016 a Dutch-led international investigation concluded that the aircraft — which crashed in Ukrainian territory held by separatist rebels — was shot down with a Buk missile system delivered from Russia.The council found that Russia had violated the Convention on International Civil Aviation, known as the Chicago Convention, which requires that states “refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.”It's the first time that the council, which represents 193 member states, has ruled on a dispute between governments.Russia has repeatedly denied any role in the incident and has offered a variety of contradictory hypotheses for what happened, but abundant open source evidence and numerous international investigations have assembled a detailed picture of the pattern of events that led to the downing of the plane.Reparations consideredDutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said that the council would consider the question of reparations within weeks.“In that context, the Netherlands and Australia are requesting that the ICAO Council order the Russian Federation to enter into negotiations with the Netherlands and Australia, and that the Council facilitate this process,” Veldkamp said in a statement.“The latter is important in order to ensure that the negotiations are conducted in good faith and according to specific timelines, and that they will yield actual results,” he added.Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged the council to move swiftly to “determine remedies”.“We call on Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for its horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct, as required under international law,” Wong said.Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell said that the council had yet to publish the reasons for its decisions.“One of the consequences for this process will be that the council will probably make some recommendations that Russia pay what are called reparations, which is an international term for damages, as a result of its violation of international law,” Rothwell said.“So we have to wait and see exactly what the council finds on that particular point."