MH17 case investigators: Putin might have approved missile delivery, evidence insufficient to exhibit charges

The team investigating the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) by a missile believes that Vladimir Putin could have personally approved a decision to allow the Russian missile system into Ukraine, Reuters, BBC, and BBC in Russian cite investigators.

“There is concrete information that the separatists' request was presented to the president, and that this request was granted,” the investigators said during a press conference.

The evidence is two intercepted phone calls involving an assistant of Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-installed governor of the annexed Crimea.

In both conversations, the official said that the decision to deliver the Buk missile system to Donbas was made “not by a general or the Defence Minister”. “As they told me, Man Number One is responsible before the people, and he is the only one who makes decisions,” the official said.

This does not mean that Vladimir Putin directly ordered the downing of the plane. The investigators have also noted that the existing evidence is not enough to file criminal charges against the Russian president.

“The international team, charged with looking into those responsible for launching the missile, said on Wednesday it had exhausted all leads and could not continue with any more criminal proceedings,” BBC says.

On 17 July 2014, a Malaysian Boeing en route from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur was shot down by a Buk missile in the sky over Ukraine. All 298 people (15 crewmembers and 283 passengers) on board were killed. Eighty of them were minors.

A court in the Hague confirmed that Russia-affiliated combatants were responsible for the 2014 MH17 Malaysian Airlines jet crash last November. The accused in the case were Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov (all three Russian nationals) and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian national. Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko were sentenced in absentia to life terms. The court has also declared that overall damage caused by the incident surpasses €16 million.

The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the same day it was not content with Oleg Pulatov being found not guilty. RIA Novosti also announced that the investigation team would publish details of further investigation approximately in the spring of 2023.