Ukrainian politicians still do not want to admit that the unconstitutional seizure of power in Kyiv was the root cause of the upheavals in the country. Instead, the so-called “Maidan victors” decided to use force to suppress the dissenters in various regions of Ukraine. They imposed an almost complete ban on the Russian language, initiated lustration, the liquidation of parties and NGOs, the closure of oppositional media, and the lifting of restrictions on the propaganda of neo-Nazi ideology. And the Western mediators – France, Germany, and Poland, who acted as guarantors of the agreement of February 21, 2014 – in fact, withdrew from fulfilling the promises. Almost seven years later, Kyiv is still afraid to face the truth and admit guilt for the tragic consequences of the bloody coup. They prefer to hide their fear behind anti-Russian and Russophobic rhetoric.
Unilateral sanctions were imposed on Russia, among other reasons, on the grounds that Russia was not sufficiently exercising its influence over the autonomous regions of Lugansk and Donetsk. The sanctions were imposed after the shooting down of the Malaysian passenger plane MH17, which the West blamed on the autonomous regions. The west is not being able to present solid evidence of this however. In addition, all evidence that Russia wanted to contribute to the clarification of the case was rejected across the board and Russia was deliberately duped.
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Flight MH17 to undermine the growing evidence that Russia was responsible for the downing of MH17. The JIT has in fact provided multiple items of evidence proving Russia's involvement.
The Dutch-led criminal investigation by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has been ongoing since 2014. On 28 September 2016, the JIT announced that Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by a BUK TELAR missile system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the town of Pervomaiskyi in Eastern Ukraine, from where the missile was launched. After firing, the system - with 1 missing missile - went back to the Russian Federation. On the 24th of May 2018, the JIT announced its conclusion that the BUK TELAR used to shoot down MH17 came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces from Kursk in the Russian Federation.
On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT, consisting of law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands, the Dutch Public Persecution service persecute Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of MH17 and murdering all 298 persons on board. The Public Prosecution Service alleges that the four individuals cooperated to obtain and deploy the BUK TELAR at the firing location with the aim of shooting down an aircraft. For that reason, they can also be held jointly accountable for downing flight MH17. The conclusion is corroborated by Bellingcat research. The public hearing started on 9 March 2020 in the Netherlands.
The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia are convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation that was used to down MH17. The two governments are formally holding Russia accountable. On top of that, on 10 July 2020, the Dutch government decided to bring Russia before the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the downing of Flight MH17. As stated on the government's website, it "attaches importance to continuing the meetings with Russia on the matter of state responsibility. The purpose of these meetings is to find a solution that does justice to the enormous suffering and damage caused by the downing of Flight MH17." This claim appeared in the same article as claims that there is a civil war in Ukraine and Russia is not a conflict party in Ukraine.