Dutch investigation finds Putin sent missile that downed civilian plane in Ukraine

The Dutch commission investigating the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine in 2014 pointed out on Wednesday (8) the existence of strong indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have approved the sending of the missile that brought down the aircraft to Ukrainian separatists.

Prosecutors, however, said the evidence of Putin and other Russian officials’ involvement was not “concrete enough” to lead to criminal convictions and would close the investigation without further prosecution.

The Boeing 777 with 298 people on board was shot down by a Soviet- and Russian-made BUK missile system while flying over eastern Ukraine. At the time, separatist groups began to dispute with Kiev forces for control of Donbass —a battle that continues to this day, centrally in the Ukrainian War.

In November, the Dutch court confirmed that the fall was the result of a Russian missile firing and sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life imprisonment for the tragedy. They are accused of having transported and activated the missile system that hit the plane, but not necessarily of having fired the device. The two Russians are former Moscow intelligence agents, or spies, while the Ukrainian was one of the separatist leaders.

Russia denies that it supported the rebels at that time. On Wednesday, however, prosecutors cited a phone call that was allegedly intercepted in which Russian officials said the decision to provide military support to the separatists could only be taken by the Russian president.

According to investigators, Moscow even postponed the decision to send weapons to the Ukrainian separatists because, in June 2014, Putin was in France for the celebration of the landing of Allied troops on a beach in Normandy, in World War II (1939-1945). —the aircraft was shot down in July.

“Findings about Russian involvement up to the highest level can play an important role in prosecutions relating to this state’s responsibility,” said Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer, adding that the investigation “has reached its limit” and that all leads “have been exhausted “.

Investigations into the plane crash were led by the Netherlands, with the participation of Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and Belgium. With limited evidence, investigators were unable to identify the soldiers responsible for firing the missile that brought down the plane, nor could they determine what information the separatists had about the aircraft.

After being hit by the missile, the plane crashed in flames into a cornfield in Donetsk. In October, the province was annexed to Russian territory through referendums deemed illegal by Ukraine and Western allies. None of the people on board survived.

“The commission investigated everything it could without the cooperation of the Russian authorities and without compromising people’s safety,” said Andy Kraag, head of the Netherlands’ National Criminal Investigation Department, quoted by The Washington Post.

The team that investigated the case questioned witnesses, analyzed satellite images, obtained access to telephone calls, among other data. Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke even reported that the area in eastern Ukraine was inaccessible to them, making the process difficult.