THIS country downed Malaysia flight MH17 in Ukraine that killed 298 people, it is...

Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777-– from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur—was shot down on July 17, 2014 by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine. Cut to July 10, 2025, Europe's top human rights court discovered that it was Russia who "shot down" Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members onboard. 

Going through the judgement, the court's president, Mattias Guyomar, said, "The evidence suggested that the missile had been intentionally fired at flight MH17, most likely in the mistaken belief that it had been a military aircraft."

The judges observed that Russia’s denial of its involvement in the MH17 tragedy violated international law. It also added that Moscow’s failure to properly investigate the incident “significantly aggravated the suffering” of the families of the victims. Earlier in May, the UN’s aviation agency also found Russia responsible for the disaster. 

Meanwhile, the Court also found Russia guilty of murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure and kidnapping of Ukrainian children since 2022—Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv. Guyomar ruled that Russia violated international humanitarian by making attacks that “killed and wounded thousands of civilians and created fear and terror."

The use of rape as a weapon of war was an act of extreme atrocity that amounted to torture," Guyomar stated. The 501-page judgement noted that Moscow’s absence from the proceedings were in violation to the European Convention of Human Rights— the treaty that underpins the court.

Russia-Ukraine war

In the early hours of Thursday, Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv and surrounding regions. This is the second time such a massive attack has been carried out by Moscow in the past month. 

"Russia launched an air attack overnight with 741 aerial weapons - including 728 drones, 7 Iskander-K cruise missiles, and 6 Kinzhal missiles. Our defences neutralised 718 threats, with dozens intercepted by Ukrainian interceptor drones and mobile fire groups. The main strike hit Lutsk, where fires broke out at a garage cooperative and a private enterprise. Damage was also reported in Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions," the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on X.