Full implementation of the court decision on the MH17 case will only be possible after Ukraine’s victory over Russia
Malaysian Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on 17 July 2014. Then all 298 people on board were killed.
It took 8 years for the court in The Hague to issue a ruling on the MH17 case, which determined that Russia is a terrorist state and the disaster is its criminal handwriting. The court ruled that the plane was shot down by a Buk missile, a missile launched from Pervomayske, a territory that was under the rule of separatists controlled by Russia. Among others, FSB officer Strelkov-Girkin was found guilty of the attack. He, along with Serhiy Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The court was cognisant of the fact that the atrocities of Putin and his ilk, and the decision in the case of the downing of flight MH17 was important not only for the families of the victims of Russian terror, but also a significant legal precedent for further proceedings against all Russian war criminals, including President Putin. Despite the fact that this was a serious step towards justice, there is still much work to be done to bring all perpetrators to justice.
The main problem remains that neither the terrorist state nor its already convicted war criminals are prepared to repent and serve their sentences. On the contrary: they continue to commit new crimes – murder, torture, destruction of infrastructure. Only Ukraine’s victory over Russia and pushing it beyond the borders of the civilized world will allow the execution of the court decision in full.
