Russia was responsible for shooting down a Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine in 2014 that killed all 298 people on board, the United Nations aviation agency has ruled.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was struck by a Russian-made missile while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur as Russian separatists battled Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region below.
The UN’s Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] on Monday found that the Russian federation violated international air law, which requires countries to “refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.”
Russia has denied any responsibility for the incident.
The case was brought to the UN in 2022 by the Dutch and Australian governments. Of the nearly 300 victims, 196 were from the Netherlands and 38 were from Australia, according to the BBC.
“We call upon Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct,” Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said in a statement after the vote.
