Ukraine Mourns Innocent Victims Taken by MH17 Tragedy

One year ago, on this day the world was shaken up by the shocking news. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down from the sky. A total of 298 people, including 80 children were on board. There were three passengers with an “I” next to their names on the passengers list with “I” standing for “infant”. This heartbreaking tragedy that took lives of so many innocent people and put their families through hell left no one unfazed.

Justice must prevail and those guilty in committing this heinous crime should be held responsible.

In an immediate aftermath to MH17 crash, Russian colonel Igor Girkin, one the founders of the “Donetsk People's Republic” terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for shooting down what they considered to be the Ukrainian AN-26 jet, making it publicly available on the Internet and bragging about it on his page on Russian social media Vkontakte. 

It goes: “near Torez the plane AN-26 was just brought down. It knocks around somewhere behind the mine “Progress”. We warned you, don’t fly in our sky. Here is the video proof of the falling birds” 

He, eventually, took the post down, when it became clear that it wasn’t a Ukrainian plane, but rather an international airliner. As if you could bring grieving families their beloved ones back by simply pressing the cancel button. Except that you can’t. 

OSCE team, international and Ukrainian inspectors were not granted full access to the crash site and their work was immediately put at risk. Heavily armed people wouldn’t allow them to inspect the wreckage spread at several tens square kilometers deep in separatists-held territory. As Australian PM Tony Abbott said “having those people in control of the site is a little like leaving the criminals in charge of the crime scene” (Australia lost 27 of its citizens in this crash). 

While victims’ remains were transferred to Netherlands within next few days, crash site forensic examination and the collecting of evidence dragged on for months. After all, first and foremost a gunman would probably do his best to cover the incriminating facts. Guilty mind is never at ease. 

As the majority of victims (193 people) were from the Netherlands, the Dutch Safety Board was entrusted with is leading the investigation and coordinating the international team of investigators. On September 9, 2014, The Dutch Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the crash of Boeing 777. The report stated that “the damage observed in the forward fuselage and cockpit section of the aircraft appears to indicate that there were impacts from a large number of high-energy objects from the outside the aircraft. It does not indicate any known failure mode of the aircraft, its engines or systems. Aircraft broke up in the air”.

This document didn’t point fingers as well as it didn’t put the blame. The final report though will be much tougher as it will finally reveal the truth.

Currently all member countries of the Joint Investigation Team (Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine) are working hard on establishing the international tribunal despite enormous resistance from Russia.

Today, as we mourn 298 innocent lives taken by malicious terrorists and their sponsors from neighboring country, all we want to say is: justice is inevitable.