Russia appeals ‘unfounded’ UN agency verdict deeming it culpable for MH17 crash

Local people launch paper airplanes during a Last Flight mourning ceremony on the tenth anniversary of the MH17 crash near the village of Hrabove, in the Donetsk region, 17 July 2024. Photo: EPA/ALESSANDRO GUERRA

Russia has filed an appeal at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against a verdict by the UN’s top aviation agency deeming it culpable for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.

In May, the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council ruled that Russia was responsible for the plane’s downing over the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, which killed 298 people in July 2014.

In its statement published Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the ICAO Council’s May decision as “unfounded,” arguing that the body had failed to conduct a “full, thorough, and independent” investigation into the crash and had instead relied on the “highly questionable results” of a Dutch-led inquiry and “fabricated evidence” supplied by Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would appeal the ICAO Council’s ruling “in all aspects,” while emphasising that submitting the appeal “in no way legitimises or recognises any ICAO Council decisions in this case,” which it previously declared invalid.

Moscow’s ICJ appeal breathes new life into an international legal affair that began in March 2022 when Australia and the Netherlands, whose citizens made up the majority of the crash’s victims, filed a complaint against Russia with the ICAO Council at the UN.

The complaint, which alleged that MH17’s downing amounted to a Russian violation of international aviation law, cited the findings of a joint investigation concluded in 2019 by the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Ukraine, which found the aircraft had been struck by a Russian-made Buk missile system that had been brought into separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine from Russia.

In June 2024, Russia declared it would stop taking part in the proceedings, claiming that it did not recognise the ICAO Council’s jurisdiction over the matter.

The ICAO Council is the permanent governing body whose responsibility it is to adopt international aviation standards and arbitrate disputes between the ICAO’s 193 member states, including Russia. According to its founding document, the Chicago Convention of 1947, any country that is a member of the ICAO may not use weapons against civilian aircraft in flight.