Photo OSCE/Evgeny Maloletka Members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission at the Boeing crash site. Photo OSCE/Evgeny Maloletka 12th anniversary of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash over Ukraine International Law
July 17 marks the 12th anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. As a result of the disaster, 298 people died.
The UN expresses solidarity with the families of the victims
“The Secretary-General expresses full solidarity with the families of the victims and honors the memory of the victims of this tragedy,” the UN press service said in a statement issued on the eve of the anniversary of the head.
In accordance with Security Council Resolution 2166, the Secretary-General calls on all Member States to cooperate fully to bring those responsible to justice, building on the important work of the independent Joint Investigation Team.All 298 people on board the plane, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, died when the plane crashed on July 17, 2014 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Among the dead were 193 Dutch citizens, 43 Malaysian citizens and 27 Australian citizens. The remaining victims were citizens of a number of other countries, including Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the Philippines.
SC Resolution
UN Security Council Resolution 2166, addressing this tragic incident, was introduced by Australia and unanimously adopted on 21 July 2014. The document expressed support for “efforts to conduct a full, comprehensive and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation regulations.” In addition, the Council called on all UN member states to “provide any assistance requested” in criminal and civil investigations.
A year after the tragedy, Malaysia submitted a new draft resolution to the Security Council to establish an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the tragedy. However, Council members were unable to adopt the document due to the veto of the Russian Federation.
ICAO Council Decision
On May 12, 2025, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) decided that the Russian The Federation failed to comply with its obligations under international air law in connection with the downing of flight MH17 in 2014.
This is the first time in the history of ICAO that the Council of the organization has ruled on the merits of a dispute between Member States under the Organization’s dispute resolution mechanism.
The Council agreed with that the claims made by Australia and the Netherlands in connection with the events of 17 July 2014 are well founded in fact and law. The case was based on allegations that the actions of the Russian Federation in destroying an aircraft with a surface-to-air missile in eastern Ukraine constituted a violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which provides that “a State shall refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight”.